Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is an Anglican parish church largely dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, with later alterations in the late 18th century and a restoration in 1914 by C.H. Biddulph-Pinchard. It is constructed of rubble stone with a stone slate roof featuring coped verges. The building incorporates a nave, chancel, a south chapel, and a vestry, with a small, gabled west bellcote over the entrance.

The west doorway is pointed and moulded, set within a gabled stone canopy supported on brackets, with a ledged door and a 3-light, 19th-century Perpendicular-style window above. The bellcote sits on a corbel table with a 2-light pointed opening, a string course, and a battlemented parapet surmounted by a short, crocketed octagonal spire with a moulded finial. A chamfered lancet window is located on the north side of the nave, alongside a pair of large buttresses on the north-east corner, one added in 1719. The chancel is faced in ashlar and contains a 19th-century two-light square-headed window with cusped lights to the east, and a 3-light 19th-century Perpendicular-style window at the east end, accompanied by a buttress with offsets. The vestry features a 19th-century Perpendicular-style east window, a pointed door on the south side, and an ashlar stack. The gabled south chapel, constructed around 1480 by Thomas Tropnell, has a 3-light Perpendicular-style restored south window. There are no windows on the south side of the nave.

Inside, the nave has a 15th-century arch-braced collar rafter roof with three chamfered tie-beams and flagstone floors. Late 19th-century pews replaced earlier box pews, the latter being reused as dado panelling. A late 17th-century polygonal pulpit with a reader's desk, presented by John Hall, incorporates a tester from 1765. The church also houses a 13th-century cylindrical stone font. The Tropnell Chapel features a moulded pointed arch to the nave, currently filled by a carved stone screen with vine carving on the coving and five heraldic shields displaying the Tropnell arms, topped with a crest. The chapel’s ceiling is a 15th-century pointed barrel vault adorned with heraldic arms on the bosses. Remains of paintings depicting the life of St Katherine are visible on the west wall, alongside a cusped piscina on the south wall. The 19th-century moulded pointed chancel arch is screened by a good-quality carved wooden screen from 1914. The chancel roof is arch-braced and collar-raftered, and features an ogee piscina on the north wall. Late 17th-century communion rails with turned balusters and choir stalls (one 17th-century, with poppy heads, the others being copies) are also present. The vestry and organ chamber, originally the Neale family chapel added in 1775, are linked to the Tropnell Chapel via a moulded round arch on compound pilasters with unfinished capitals. A screen between the vestry and chancel, originally from Godstone, Surrey, was brought to the church in 1912. An organ case was painted to designs by Biddulph-Pinchard and executed by Miss Maurice. A stone tablet on the south wall bears a raised date of 1775 and the initials "RN", presumably those of Robert Neale, commemorating the building of his chapel. Reset 15th-century stained glass is found in the west window.

Thomas Tropnell, the builder of the chapel, was also responsible for building Great Chalfield Manor around 1470. The church stands within the moat surrounding Great Chalfield Manor and is accessed via a bridge, forming an important late Medieval group.