Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Parish church built in 1826 by James Plowman for James Langston. The building is constructed of regularly coursed and dressed limestone rubble with slate roofs featuring coped verges and embattled parapets.

The plan consists of a nave and short chancel with vestries positioned in the angle between them. The west tower is closely modelled on that of Magdalen College, Oxford, but reduced by a third in size.

The tower is the building's most prominent feature. It rises in six stages with a chamfered plinth and moulded string courses, flanked by hexagonal angle buttresses. A pierced embattled parapet displays Perpendicular tracery patterns and a multitude of carved grotesque heads along the cornice, with a band of blind quatrefoils below. Crocketed octagonal corner pinnacles and similar square pinnacles to the centre of each side are equipped with empty statue niches. Steep pilaster buttresses beneath the latter extend to the belfry, which contains tall 3-light Perpendicular-style windows with paned tracery on each side of the pilaster buttress. Stone-louvred 2-light windows also appear to the second stage on the south. The tower entrance is a richly moulded pointed doorway to the second stage on the north side, approached by a prominent external staircase, with a similar but larger doorway to the west, above which sits a clock.

The nave is buttressed in five bays with crocketed pinnacles and blind trefoil-headed panels to each buttress. It features a stepped chamfered plinth and moulded cornice below the parapet. The south side has a 3-light window with reticulated tracery in the west bay, with other windows displaying a mixture of late Decorated and Perpendicular panel tracery, also in 3 lights. A similar 2-light window appears to the west wall. All windows have hoodmoulds. The north side is similar except that the window with reticulated tracery is positioned in the centre bay. A stone cross adorns the east gable.

The chancel features a moulded eaves cornice terminating in carved angels at the east end, with a stone cross to the gable. A 4-light Decorated-style east window has a hoodmould with head-stops. The flat-roofed vestries in the angle with the nave each have a single-light Decorated-style window in the east wall. The south vestry has a Tudor-arched doorway to its south wall.

Interior features include a lierne vault with central foliated boss and carved corbels to the tower. The wide aisleless nave is spanned by a hammer-beam roof in five bays based on that of the hall of Christ Church College, Oxford. The chancel has a painted and panelled roof with gilding of 1884 by Clayton and Bell. A raised choir with encaustic tiles projects into the east bay of the nave. The chancel arch is 4-centred with panelled reveals and soffit. Moulded pointed doorways lead to the vestries on each side of the chancel, and a cinquefoil-headed broad lancet window appears in the south wall.

The nave benches and choir stalls date to 1826 and display blind Gothic tracery patterns. An octagonal font with panelled sides and pedestal stands in the nave, alongside a stone pulpit with Decorated tracery panels. A stone reredos and high altar are adorned with paintings depicting the Apostles, the Crucifixion and the Descent from the Cross, all executed by Clayton and Bell in 1884. The east window contains stained glass commemorating James Langston (died 1863), while late 19th and early 20th-century stained glass alternates with clear glass in the nave. Sconces to the choir stalls and in the sanctuary probably date to 1826. A Jacobean chest occupies the north-east corner of the nave, and a barrel organ of 1826 stands in the tower.

The building is graded II* on account of its tower, which forms a prominent landmark in the locality.