Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Fittleton

An Anglican parish church of 13th-century origin, substantially rebuilt and extended in the 15th and 16th centuries, with restoration work carried out in 1903.

The church is built of flint banded with limestone and part rendered, with slate roofs to the nave and aisles, and tiled roof to the chancel. The building comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, chancel, and west tower. The aisles contain early 15th-century windows of two and three lights. The nave clerestorey features two-light windows with cinquefoil tracery and square label moulds. The chancel displays a mid to late 15th-century three-light window, though the east and low-side windows are 19th-century additions.

The three-stage tower is partly clasped by the aisles and includes an octagonal north-west stair turret that rises above the fleuron string course and straight parapet. A small spire, restored in 1902, sits atop the tower. The tower contains single-light bell-openings and a two-light west window. The south porch dates from the 16th century and is a broad gabled structure with a three-centred arch of two chamfered orders; its inner door dates from around 1380 and features bracket moulding.

The interior contains a three-bay nave with 15th-century arcades resting on octagonal columns. The walls are plastered. A narrow 13th-century chancel arch with square capitals to the jambs separates the nave from the chancel. The nave roof dates from the 15th century and features king post trusses with ties bracketed to wall posts on mask corbels. The purlins are moulded as ridges, and intermediate tie beams with principal rafters are similarly moulded with carved bosses at the intersections with purlins. The chancel has three roof bays with a 19th-century roof in 15th-century style featuring open rafters. A blocked north door is visible in the chancel wall. The aisles have open rafter roofs. The tower was inserted into the western bay of the nave.

The church contains a Romanesque font with panels divided by raised incised strips, remounted in the 19th century. A wooden pulpit also dates from the 19th century, as does a 1903 tower screen which is panelled and glazed. The stone altar is 19th-century. Early 18th-century houseling benches survive, as does a 19th-century altar table in Jacobean style. An organ is also present.

The church possesses an extensive series of monuments and commemorative tablets. In the chancel is a wall tomb inserted into the south-east window embrasure, featuring a Purbeck marble slab on a panelled chest with shields and strapwork, topped with a triptych bearing shields and brasses to Thomas Jay (died 1623) and his wife Anne (died 1612), as well as a brass to Catherine Vowell (died 1844).

The north aisle contains eight white and grey marble wall tablets: an urn over a tablet commemorating William Beach of Netheravon House (died 1790); a draped urn over a tablet to Henrietta(?) Ann and Jane Beach and infants (early 19th century); a framed tablet with arms to Michael Beach-Hicks-Beach; a 1916 tablet to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Earl St. Aldwyn, his son Viscount Quenington of Fittleton, and his wife; a draped urn over framed tablets to Michael Hicks-Beach of Williamstrip Park (died 1930); a defaced oval tablet with flaming urn; a limestone tablet with round-rebated corners to John Ivy (died 1733); and a slate tablet with round-rebated corners to Bridget Hedderly (died 1776).

The south aisle contains three marble wall tablets: a tablet with unrolling scroll to John Hitchcock (died 1815); a tablet with pretty urn over cushioned tablet and flanking inlaid pilasters to Mary Hitchcock (died 1811); and an aedicule with broken pediment, Corinthian pilasters and putti on the apron, containing arms and commemorating Henry Clerk (died 1712) and recording his charities.