Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is an Anglican church built between 1938 and 1939 by Edward Maufe. Constructed of white-rendered brick with pantiled roofs, it is designed in a Romanesque style incorporating continental details. The church comprises a five-bay nave, a choir and sanctuary flanked by a Lady Chapel and a children's corner, and a two-storey vestry block. An asymmetrical tower is a prominent feature, along with a narrow narthex at the west end, situated under a balcony. The west end features a stepped arch surround incorporating an ‘osbergian’ shaped west window and recessed double entrance doors, set within a decorated porch inscribed 'Venite Exultemus Deo’. Nave windows are round-headed, each with leaded lights, three transoms and a central mullion; casement fasteners are in the form of half-sunbursts. A round window is located at the east end, above memorial plaques. The children’s corner, positioned under the tower, has a stepped round window behind a slate sill. The tower features a row of small louvres under broad, swept eaves, surmounted by a cross, and smaller square windows to the vestries and narthex.

Inside, the nave has groin-vaulted passage aisles, with exposed pine timbers and a wood block floor in the main space. A centrally-placed font with lancet tracery sits at the west end. A round chancel arch leads to the sanctuary, where a pulpit is built into the angle. The choir stalls, also designed by Maufe, occupy two steps, leading up to a further step and low rails in the sanctuary. The sanctuary contains an altar and stepped sedilia between columns with unmoulded capitals. A squint, with Romanesque columns in Maufe’s distinctive style, leads to the Lady Chapel, which is accessed under a round arch and contains stalls, altar rails, and a painting behind the altar.

The church is recognized as an exceptional and largely unaltered example of Maufe’s mature style, conceived around the time work began on Guildford Cathedral. Its considered manipulation of light within carefully designed spaces places it amongst his finest works, while the controlled massing and unusual design of the exterior give it a striking presence.