Church Of All Saints

SU 09 NE DOWN AMPNEY DOWN AMPNEY VILLAGE

8/112 Church of All Saints

26.11.58

GV I

Anglican parish church. Consecrated 1265, spire of C14, C15 south porch, C19 clerestory, aisles and transepts, chancel and north transept restored 1863. Rubble stone, coursed to chancel and north transept, stone slate roof with coped verges and cross finials. West tower, nave with clerestory, aisles and transepts, and south porch, chancel with vestry to north. Tower of 3 stages with flat angle buttresses to west, string courses, embattled parapet, and octagonal spire with moulded divisions and carved section just above halfway up, weathercock. Lower stages of tower have single lancets and upper stage has 4-bay Early English arcade on each face with outer 2 arches blind, inner 2 with belfry louvres. Clerestory has three 2-light Perpendicular style windows with cusped lights. South aisle with 2-light plate tracery. South porch has coped diagonal buttresses with cusped niches above, large square hoodmould over 3-centred arched entrance with carved spandrels and small crocketed ogee niche inside on west wall. Triple lancet to south transept with reset consecration cross below. Chancel has stepped triple lancet with roll moulding to east end, with Purbeck column shafts on inside, and small 3-light Decorated window on south side with adjacent C18 wall tablet with cherub heads, fluted pilasters and skull on apron. North aisle has 3 single lancets. Interior: nave roof of 4 bays with arch-braced collar beams supported on tie beams with brace and strut to corbel. Four-bay Transitional north arcade with cylindrical piers, stiff leaf capitals and soffits painted with restored C13 red cinquefoil flowers. One similar pier and some painting on south arcade. Cinquefoiled rere-arches to transept windows, and piscina, credence shelf and squint in south transept. Very fine late C19 wooden fittings including pulpit, reredos, rood screen and south transept screen, all designed by Charles Ponting, carried out 1898 onwards. North transept screen dated 1900, incorporating Jacobean panelling and painted arms of Sir Anthony Hungerford. Tomb recess in north chancel wall, with coffin lid. Recumbent effigies in south transept under large cusped ogee arch with ballflower and crocketed decoration, of Sir Nicholas (d.1300) and Lady Margaret de Valers (d.1320). In north transept, monument to Sir John and Sir Anthony Hungerford, erected 1637, with kneeling marble effigies under canopy in Renaissance style with broken pediment, putti and heraldry. (David Verey, Buildings of England - Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds, 1979)

Listing NGR: SU0982996542