Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Steeple Langford

An Anglican parish church of limestone and flint with a tiled roof featuring coped verges. The building spans the 13th to 15th centuries, with significant restoration undertaken in 1873.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, north aisle, south porch, and a 19th-century chancel with north organ chamber.

The south porch, a gabled 19th-century addition, has a moulded pointed archway with attached shafts and hoodmould, with a coped verge. To its left is a buttress with offsets and a 14th-century-style two-light window with a square hoodmould; two further 14th-century-style windows appear to the right, also with square hoodmoulds. A large flat buttress to the right corresponds with the position of former rood stairs.

The 19th-century chancel features three two-light geometric-style windows with hoodmoulds, a pointed priest's doorway with roll-moulded string course raised over it, and a corbel table to the eaves with carved heads. The east window is a three-light 19th-century reticulated design with hoodmould and clasping buttresses. A quatrefoil on the north side of the chancel contains one two-light 14th-century-style window. The organ chamber, which projects with a pitched roof, has a two-light east window, pointed north doorway, two-light geometric-style window, and string course matching the south side.

The north aisle has a shallow lean-to roof and features a fine three-light Perpendicular east window with a blocking course and saddleback coping. The north side has two 14th-century two-light windows either side of a central chamfered blocked doorway, above which is a small two-light Perpendicular window. Four buttresses with offsets and blocking course line this elevation. The west end of the aisle has a fine three-light Perpendicular window with hoodmould.

The west tower is of three stages and 14th-century date. Its west face has a three-light window with reticulated tracery, diagonal buttresses, and string courses. Gilded clockfaces appear on the west and south sides. The north face has a chamfered lancet. The 16th-century bellstage features two-light cusped square-headed windows with louvres. A short lead splay-footed spire crowns the tower.

Interior

The nave has a 19th-century rib-panelled roof with three tie-beams and crown posts, and a stone floor. The 13th-century tower arch features attached shafts with stiff leaf capitals and a roll-moulded arch. The south wall contains a blocked elliptical arch to the former rood loft, which houses a 13th-century coffin lid relating to a heart burial, with an aumbry to its right.

The north aisle consists of three bays with 14th-century double chamfered arches on cylindrical piers and responds. Its roof is an unrestored 15th-century panelled design with carved animal bosses. The floor contains reset headstones with fine lettering.

The chancel arch is a restored 13th-century work in similar style to the tower arch. The chancel has a 19th-century panelled wagon roof, a 19th-century arch to the organ chamber and vestry, and a polychrome tiled floor. A fragment of a Saxon cross from Hanging Langford is displayed here.

Fittings and Monuments

Stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne dates to the 1920s and is located in the chancel. A Jacobean polygonal pulpit with finely carved panels stands in the nave. A 12th-century Purbeck marble font with a square bowl on a pier and four shafts bearing low relief carvings is also present, along with 19th-century pews and a brass candelabra.

The north aisle contains a fine stone altar dated JM/1576 with multifoils and ovolo-moulded plinth, together with some 17th-century pews and medieval bench ends. The north blocked doorway contains reset heraldic panels with Mompesson shields; additional Mompesson heraldic shields appear on the wall to the right and are said to have come from a chest tomb. The north aisle was rebuilt by the Mompesson family of Bathampton House in the 15th century.

Monuments include a classical marble tablet to William Moody of Bathampton House (died 1798), a wooden tablet to the Collier family (1608–1734), benefactions boards on the west wall, and a Baroque marble tablet in the chancel to Francisca Thring (died 1749). A three-quarter figure of Rector Joseph Collier (died 1635) adorns the north wall, and a cartouche to Reverend Arthur Collier (died 1732) appears on the south wall.

The church contains bells dated 1656 (two) and 1737.