Church Of All Saints

CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS

The Church of All Saints stands at Hazleton Salperton Park as an Anglican church of the former parish of Salperton. The building dates from the 12th century with Early English and Perpendicular work, and was substantially restored by Higgs and Rudkin in 1885.

The church is constructed in stone slate with varied materials across its parts. The nave north wall is built of random squared and dressed limestone, whilst the south wall is of rubble with dressed stone quoins. The chancel comprises coursed limestone rubble with dressed quoins. The tower is ashlar. The porch and vestry, which project from the south wall towards the west end, are of coursed squared limestone with dressed quoins. The tower stands at the west end where the nave meets the chancel.

The exterior displays a richness of medieval detail. On the nave north wall are vestiges of blocked windows, including a pointed window with tracery at the far left, and a 19th-century two-light stone-mullioned window with quatrefoil to the right. A 20th-century plank door sits within a porch that has a plain round-headed 12th-century surround. The Perpendicular porch features a pointed arched entrance with concave moulding and a hood carved with stops in the form of a knight's and king's head. Above the arch is a carved head on the gable. Stone bench seats line the interior of the porch, and an image niche with crocketed canopy and brattished string at the top is set above a seat along the east wall.

The nave south wall contains two or three-light hollow-moulded stone-mullioned windows, possibly Tudor in date, with carved spandrels and Tudor-arched heads. The right-hand window has a stopped hood above it. A blocked pointed window is partly obscured by the 19th-century vestry to the left. The vestry's gable end contains a single window with a stilted-headed surround and stopped hood, whilst a chimney projects at its north-west corner.

On the chancel south wall is a small blocked Early English window with an Early English lancet above it. A two-light 19th-century stone-mullioned window with quatrefoil at the apex stands to the right, and a pointed 19th-century three-light east window with cinquefoil-headed lights and tracery fills the eastern end.

The two-stage Perpendicular tower has a moulded plinth and diagonal buttresses, with a string course between the stages. The belfry windows are two-light stone-mullioned openings with stone slate louvres, and a carved head sits below the west window. The parapet is battlemented with beasts' head gargoyles offset from the corners on the north and south sides. A small round-headed west window with leaded panes completes the tower's fenestration.

Interior work is largely plastered except for the nave north wall. The chancel arch, dating from circa 1120, has two orders rising from corbelled abaci with scalloped capitals. An Early Perpendicular arch connects the nave to the tower. The nave roof is a 19th-century wagon roof, whilst the chancel has a 19th-century seven-facetted roof. Stone flag floors throughout.

A small round-headed aumbry survives in the splay of a window in the chancel south wall. A blocked 4-centred arched doorway is visible within the blocking of a pointed window on the nave south wall.

The 19th-century pews are original to the restoration period, whilst the 20th-century wooden pulpit is later. A 19th-century font with a square bowl and engaged columns around its base stands in the nave. Stained glass erected in memory of John Browne (died 1850) and his wife Martha (died 1843) fills the chancel east window, with an inscription on the sill. Windows in the nave south wall contain glass by Kempe and Tower. A hatchment painted with the arms of George III hangs over the chancel arch.

The church contains several monuments to members of the Browne family. A fine mid-18th-century marble monument to John and Mary Browne (died 1782) stands to the left of the south door, featuring a sarcophagus with two urns at the top, a cartouche, and coloured marble inlay at the bottom. Additional 19th-century and late 18th-century marble monuments to the Browne family occupy the chancel, one by Wood of Cheltenham and one by R. Cooke of London. A sepulchral stone with a foliated cross dating from around 1300 rests at the base of the tower.