Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Parish church largely rebuilt in the 15th century on the site of a 13th-century church, with repairs carried out in 1844 and restoration in 1870. The building is constructed largely of coursed dressed blocks of local Soar stone, a slate-like material. The tower and spire are rendered and appear to be of different, considerably earlier construction. All dressings are of granite or restored in freestone. The roofs are gable-ended slate with decorative 19th-century ridge-tiles.

The church comprises a nave, north and south aisles with chapels extending the full length of the nave and chancel, a south porch, a west tower, and a vestry to the north of the north chapel. The earliest surviving feature is a 12th-century font. Some 13th-century fabric survives in the chancel, but the main pre-Perpendicular elements are the tower and spire. The nave, aisles, chapels and porch date from the late 15th-century rebuilding. The vestry, with its mullion windows and crenellated walls, appears to be 17th-century but may have been built later using old materials. The 1870 restoration included renewal of the roofs and seating.

Exterior

The three-stage tower features a broach spire and diagonal buttresses, with a shallow rectangular stair turret on the south side. Single lancet belfry lights light the bell chamber. There is no west doorway; the west window is a 19th-century addition in Perpendicular style. The north aisle is battlemented with slightly coarser stonework than the south side. Seven bays of debased Perpendicular granite windows are separated by buttresses. A small four-centred roll-moulded doorway opens to the north. The large crenellated vestry at the east end of the aisle has two granite mullion windows and a small rubble chimney. At the east end, three parallel gable ends each contain a 19th-century restored five-light Perpendicular window. The south chapel has a granite three-light Perpendicular window and a four-centred arched, roll-moulded priest's doorway. The south aisle has seven bays: five occupied by debased Perpendicular windows, the remaining two by a five-sided rood stair turret and a two-storey porch. The porch has a roll-moulded four-centred arched doorway of South Hams voussoir type with a small cinquefoiled light above.

Interior

The porch contains a very fine granite rib-vaulted ceiling with six shafts supporting moulded ribs and large carved bosses at their intersections. A holy water stoup with a carved granite bowl is present. The fifteenth-century granite south doorway has a four-centred arch with double roll-moulding. The interior of the church and arcades are whitewashed. The eight-bay arcades are of Beer stone with clustered columns, each shaft having an individually carved capital, connected by moulded four-centred arches. The last bay of the northern arcade at the east end is of granite. A two-centred tower arch of voussoir stones separates the church from the tower. To its south is a small shouldered-head stone doorway to the tower stairs. A two-centred granite doorway in the north-west corner is of uncertain function. The south wall of the sanctuary contains a thirteenth-century trefoil-headed piscina; adjoining it is the springing of an arch apparently intended for sedilia but cut off by the later arcade. The eastern end bay of each arcade is filled by a section of a fifteenth-century rood screen, considerably restored. The parclose screens in the adjoining bay are also medieval though somewhat restored. The wagon roofs, seating and pulpit have all been completely renewed during the 1870 restoration. Another holy water stoup with an arch above is positioned just inside the north doorway, its bowl carved with a vine and grape device. The church retains an excellent twelfth-century tub font with arcading around the sides; the corner shafts to the central stem have been renewed.