Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

An Anglican parish church of late 14th or 15th-century date, restored in 1865. The building is constructed of rubble with freestone dressings and an ashlar steeple, with lead and slate roofs. It comprises a west tower, nave with south aisle, south porch, chancel, and north chapel.

Tower and Steeple

The tower is of two stages without a string course. It has angle buttresses with weathered setbacks on the first stage only. The north-east corner rises as a rectangular stair turret at first-stage level, becoming octagonal above the parapet, with small battlements. The west face contains a plain west door in a moulded pointed arch beneath a 3-light window, both with plain dripmoulds. A clock face is set into the west face. The second stage has 2-light louvred windows on all faces. A tall parapet between heavy crocketed finials is pierced in two rows: the lower openings are ogee-headed, the upper ones smaller and cusped. An octagonal spire rises behind the parapet, with single lights to the compass faces. The spire terminates in a finial with weathercock.

Nave and South Aisle

The nave has three bays with 3-light pointed windows beneath drips, separated by buttresses that rise as small crocketed finials through a trefoil-pierced parapet. At the east end stands a plain lean-to stair turret with a single slit light. The south aisle is similar in character but has a plain parapet. The south porch is gabled with a heavily moulded pointed arch and a 2-light window with drip above.

Chancel and North Chapel

The chancel was rebuilt in 1865 and features a 3-light decorated east window and two 2-light perpendicular windows to the south flanking the priest's door. The north chapel, dating from the same restoration period, has two 2-light perpendicular windows to the east and two plain 2-light windows to the north.

Interior

The tower arch has very broad roll and wave moulding. The nave is roofed with an open wagon roof with gilded bosses. The north windows have moulded rear-arches, and plain rood stair entrances remain, the lower one being blocked.

The south aisle has a four-bay arcade with a distinct lean. The arcade features roll and hollow moulding with small foliate capitals. The windows have plain rear-arches, and a slender framed ceiling rises from angel corbels. An ogee-headed piscina is located at the south-east. The south porch contains a restored arch brace collar beam roof on painted angel corbels, an ogee-headed stoup, and an empty niche over the south door with a stellate canopy.

The chancel has an ornately moulded arch and an arch brace collar beam roof on painted angel corbels. A double ogee-headed squint passes in part behind the moulded rear-arch of the south chancel window. A small trefoil-headed piscina is positioned at the south-east. An archway to the north chapel, now used as the vestry, is blocked.

Glass and Fittings

The west window is a Smyth-Piggot memorial window, replaced during a restoration in 1917 to designs by Roland Paul. Fittings include a 19th-century stone pulpit in a local style, a much-restored plain font possibly of 12th-century date, and royal arms moved to the tower to allow for a 19th-century altar piece depicting the Transfiguration to be placed over the south door.