Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a parish church with origins in the 12th century, undergoing significant rebuilding and enlargement in the 13th and 15th centuries. It is constructed of roughly coursed slatestone rubble, with a gable ended slate roof. The plan incorporates a nave, chancel, north aisle, a south transept, a porch, and a west tower.

Early features include a 12th-century font and south doorway, suggesting the nave's original date. A south transept was added in the 13th century. A north transept was replaced by a north aisle in the 15th century, the same period likely for the tower's construction. The porch is a later addition, its dating uncertain, possibly from the 17th century.

The exterior showcases a crenellated west tower with obelisk finials and setback buttresses. A four-sided stair projection is visible on the tower's south wall. The west doorway is roundheaded, built with rubble in a South Hams style, featuring roll, hollow, and roll moulding. Above it is a three-light Perpendicular window with granite mullions. The north aisle has six bays, punctuated by buttresses between three-light Perpendicular windows. A blocked roundheaded north doorway sits above a simple three-light trefoil-headed mullion window. A rectangular rood stair projection is present. The aisle terminates with a three-light Perpendicular window, and the chancel has a similar four-light east window, projecting slightly from the aisle’s end. On the south side of the chancel is a 20th-century two-light mullion window and a three-light Perpendicular window, featuring a small round arched priest’s doorway between them. The south transept has a pair of windows: an original two-light lancet on its east wall and a restored three-light Perpendicular window on its south wall. The nave’s exterior features a modern Perpendicular style window set between the transept and the porch, which itself is low gabled with a crude rubble four-centred arched doorway.

Inside the porch, stone seats are present on either side. The south doorway retains rubble jambs formed into colonettes, with crudely carved capitals and projecting imposts supporting a round arch of red sandstone. The chancel’s internal walls remain unplastered. A six-bay Beerstone arcade features Pevsner A-type piers with foliage carved capitals and four-centred arches. A four-centred tower arch has a double chamfered head. The nave and aisle have wagon roofs with carved bosses and moulded ribs, all painted. A partly restored medieval rood screen spans the nave and aisle, retaining some original colour and painted figures of saints. A parclose screen also survives. A 12th-century tub font exhibits cable and chevron moulding and carved faces. Numerous 17th and 18th century slate memorial slabs are laid on the floor at the east end of the nave.