Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a parish church on Church Road in Weston, comprising a fifteenth-century tower with the main church body rebuilt between 1830 and 1832. The church was substantially enlarged in 1893 with the addition of a new chancel and transepts, and further extended in 1921 with the addition of a memorial chapel. The main church was designed by John Pinch the Younger, the chancel and transepts by E Harbottle of Exeter, and the memorial chapel by Mowbray A Green.

The building is constructed in limestone ashlar with a slate roof and follows Perpendicular architectural style. The plan comprises a west tower, a five-bay nave with north and south aisles and porches, and a chancel.

The exterior features mullioned and transomed windows with three lights to the aisles, set beneath castellated parapets with moulded coping to the tops of embrasures and merlons. Offset buttresses carry crocketed finials. The church has a moulded plinth. Windows throughout include three-light mullioned and transomed openings with cinquefoil heads and panel tracery.

The east end, comprising the choir, chancel and transepts, is distinguished by panelled offset angle buttresses rising to a parapet with moulded coping. Each side displays panels of wavy lines with trefoils, and a string course runs below. Hoodmoulds carry mask stops, and a five-light east window sits beneath a shouldered gable. The north side includes later nineteenth-century single-storey additions positioned between the transept and chancel, featuring similar unpanelled parapets, flat arches with foliate stops to windows of one, two and three lights, and octagonal stacks at the angles of the church and choir. The transepts contain four-light windows.

The tower is divided into three stages by moulded string courses and features diagonal offset buttresses. It has a moulded coping to a castellated parapet with crocketed finials and an octagonal stair turret to the south-east corner. The upper stage contains hoodmoulds over two-light louvred bell openings. The central stage has a clock to the west face just below the string course and trefoil heads to two-light louvred openings below. A Tudor-arched door has a label mould. The west ends of the aisles have no windows.

The south porch is gabled with castellation similar to but smaller than that of the aisles, diagonal buttresses, and a cross to the finial. A crocketed ogee architrave has two engaged colonnettes to each side and a fleur-de-lys finial to double panelled oak doors. To the right of the south transept, steps lead up to a planked oak door with ornamented strap hinges.

The interior of the nave features a shallow-pitched panelled oak ceiling with bosses and arch braces carrying decorative spandrels and moulded corbels. The aisles, of almost the same height, have flat panelled ceilings. Shallow-pointed compound piers with round caps at impost level and engaged colonnettes reach the ceilings of the aisles. The west bay contains a gallery.

The fittings and glass are all post-1893 except for an east window dating from around 1860. The chancel west and south screens, stalls and stone reredos all date to 1893. The chancel north and south windows are from around 1902 in the style of Morris and Company. The south-east chapel contains a good east window of 1893 and a south window of 1898. The transepts have matching large windows from around 1898 on the south and around 1902 on the north. The nave contains a font of 1892 and a stone and marble pulpit of 1893. One south window dates to 1914 and another to 1934.

The foundation stone of the church was laid on 7 August 1830, and it was consecrated on 11 June 1832.