Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is an Anglican parish church built between 1688 and 1690, probably by Alexander Fort to designs by Sir Christopher Wren, for Sir Stephen Fox. It was restored in 1874 by Ewan Christian. The building is constructed of red brick in English bond with channel pointing, stone dressings, and a tiled roof.

The church is planned as a Greek cross with a nave, north and south transepts of equal prominence, a chancel, and a west tower. The nave and transepts are treated symmetrically on their elevations. The central entrance is positioned in the transept, featuring a door with a stone architrave, pulvinus and cornice on consoles, approached by 3 steps with wrought iron railings. The walls have a moulded plinth and raised quoins at all corners, with a stone cornice at eaves level.

The windows of the nave and chancel are round-headed with stone architraves and small keyblocks. The chancel has square paned leading but decorative leading, and a small priest's door underneath. The chancel window is a three-light round-headed window beneath a pediment over the central section of the cornice. The window of the north transept is blocked. There is an architraved oculus above the main door.

The tower is of three stages with stone bands at storey levels and architraved rectangular openings to the bell stage. A square sundial is positioned below these openings. The tower is topped with a low parapet over a cornice and raised ball finials to stone corner blocks, each surmounted with iron wind vanes with brazen tails. A door on the south side has a rounded head, architrave and open pediment on consoles. A bench mark is recorded on the tower.

Interior

The interior contains a wide nave with plastered walls and a panelled dado. A low plaster vault runs over a simple cornice, all refurbished in the 19th century. The floor is of limestone flags. Round arches with elementary capitals and key blocks lead to the chancel and to the north and south transepts, with a smaller similar arch to the tower. The chancel is short with a pointed plaster vault.

The reredos was designed by W.F. Dixon and executed by Salviati in alabaster and Devonshire marbles framing mosaic panels. The base of the tower occupies the same level as the nave with a tiled dado. The north transept is the Ilchester Chapel, raised on a step over a vault below, with a plaster ceiling and black and white marble tiled floor. The south transept contains the organ and an entrance passage screened in 17th-century panelling. The transepts and chancel have oak screens, originating from the 17th century and replicated in the 19th century, panelled and featuring tall turned balusters and pulvinated entablature.

The font beneath the tower is of limestone with a lobed bowl on a baluster stem, dating to the late 17th century, surmounted by an oak crown cover. The pulpit is 17th-century, octagonal and panelled with rusticated arches and a turned handrail to the steps. It was lowered in the 19th century when the tester was removed. Clergy desks were constructed in the 19th century from 17th-century panelling salvaged from the pulpit. Choir stalls date to 1874 with book stands on small turned columns. An oak altar rail is present. The Ilchester Chapel contains a 20th-century reredos and altar table by Noyes and Green, carved from oak taken from Downton Church. The east window glass was designed by Dixon.

Monuments and Fittings

The chancel contains two wall tablets of white marble on black slate. One is by Soper of Sarum to the Reverend Thomas Henderson, died 1905. The other is by Osmund of Sarum to the Reverend Hugh Stephens and his wife, died 1843.

In the nave, the north side displays an 18th-century marble monument by Sir R. Westmacott Junior to Henry Thomas, Earl of Ilchester, died 1802 and his two wives. It is a pedimented catafalque with a border containing a lengthy inscription. A sculptured panel below depicts a reclining grieving mother with naked children, with profile portraits in spandrels. Angled end pilasters are decorated with pelicans beneath honeysuckle.

On the south side of the nave is a Gothic marble panel on slate by Bossom of Oxford. An angel ascending holds a scroll in a monument to Henry Fox Strangeways, died 1837. Over the tower arch is an oval marble panel on a slate rectangle commemorating Charles James Fox, the statesman, died 1806 and buried at Westminster.

The Ilchester Chapel contains three outstanding wall monuments on its north wall. At the centre is a Carrara marble aedicule with composite columns carrying a segmental pediment, with coloured arms and suspended garlands and lamps above, all set on a gadrooned base on consoles mounted on limestone brackets. The inscription is in antique French to Sir Stephen Fox (1636-1716) and his son Stephen, died 1718. To the left is an elegant aedicule in grey and white marbles with Corinthian columns supporting a curved pediment, a flaming urn and lamps connected by garlands above. Within is a curtained niche revealing a swathed bust of Dame Elizabeth Fox, died 1696, with a gadrooned base and Latin inscription on a shaped apron terminating in conjoined putti. To the right is a third marble aedicule with an open segmental pediment on Composite columns, coloured arms in the spandrel with garlands, and a gadrooned base. The inscription in English commemorates Charles Fox, Member of Parliament and 2nd son, died 1713, and his wife. All three monuments are protected by reset early 18th-century wrought iron railings across the transept.

Two simple marble panels are also present: one to the Honourable Juliana Fox, died 1749, and another to Charlotte Fox, died 1755.

The nave and chancel contain numerous painted texts on metal panels mounted on the walls. Four hatchments are displayed: in the Ilchester Chapel are those of Henry Fox, Baron Holland of Foxley, 1774, and Georgiana, Baroness Holland, 1774. On the west wall of the nave are those of Charles James Fox (?) died 1806 and Henry, 2nd Earl of Ilchester, died 1802.

In the sanctuary are two cane-backed chairs, probably of the 17th century. A late 17th-century communion table is housed in the vestry.