Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a parish church of major architectural importance, dating from the late 12th century through to the 16th century, with significant restoration carried out in 1869-70 by the architect Norman Shaw. The building is constructed in ashlar gritstone, coursed squared gritstone, and gritstone and limestone rubble with gritstone dressings and quoins. It features a stepped plinth with moulded copings, a continuous sill band (to all sections except the north nave aisle), and a coved eaves band. The roof is concealed behind embattled parapets with ridgeback copings.

The church comprises a tall Perpendicular ashlar west tower in three stages, a clerestoried nave with north and south aisles extending to the three eastern bays (aisles terminate here, leaving two western bays aisless), a lower chancel, and a south porch.

The West Tower features full-height stepped angle buttresses on all sides. The west door is deeply moulded in Perpendicular style with a hoodmould and 19th-century doors. Above this is a large Perpendicular three-light window with panel tracery and a hoodmould, flanked by rosettes at the stops—the tracery was restored in the 19th century. A moulded string course runs above, with two-light chamfered mullion windows and hoodmoulds on all sides. On the south side of the tower, at the eastern corner, stands a polygonal staircase turret rising to the second stage and broached at the base, topped with embattled parapets. The second stage features a clockface dated 1870 on the west side, with pairs of pointed, moulded, louvred bell openings displaying cusped tracery. A continuous sill band and hoodmoulds sit above these openings. A coved cornice with central and corner gargoyles crowns this section, itself topped by embattled parapets with crocketed pinnacles at the corners and centre.

The North Elevation displays a blank wall of coursed squared gritstone below two early 16th-century three-light clerestory windows with recessed and chamfered mullions, segmental-headed lights, and incised spandrels. The north nave aisle, built in limestone and gritstone rubble, has a 19th-century three-light flat-headed west window with cusped ogee-headed lights and pierced spandrels. Similar two-light windows appear to the east of a blocked, chamfered, pointed doorcase with a hoodmould on the north façade. An east aisle window matches this pattern but is taller and appears to be original. Corner buttresses stand at either end of the aisle, with four additional clerestory windows above, similar to those to the west.

The Chancel to the east contains a 19th-century pointed three-light window with cusped stepped lights. Beyond a buttress to the east lies a deeply recessed, flat-headed window with panel tracery. The Perpendicular five-light east window features panel tracery (restored in the 19th century) with a hoodmould; its lower sections are blocked with stone. Diagonal buttresses flank this window on either side. The south chancel elevation has a 19th-century three-light window with stepped cusped lights—also blocked to the base—flanking a central buttress and a pointed, chamfered doorcase. The east window to the south nave aisle matches the clerestory window pattern, while the south elevation displays two early 14th-century windows with a buttress between them: the eastern is three-light with intersecting tracery and a hoodmould, while the western features Y-tracery with carved head label stops to the sides.

A projecting south porch to the west has diagonal buttresses flanking a moulded, pointed doorcase with an additional soffit mould. Beyond the outer door is a chamfered inner door with a hoodmould and carved labels. Above the outer door sits a cusped niche with a corbel for a statue. Single-light windows appear on either side of the porch. To the west, the nave aisle has a similar west window to that on the north aisle, and the nave wall displays a comparable window (probably 15th-century) with a segmental tomb niche below. Six clerestory windows above match those to the north.

Interior

The interior contains three-bay south and north arcades. The south arcade dates to the late 12th century with semi-circular, double-chamfered arches resting on columns with many-scalloped capitals. The north arcade is later, featuring slightly pointed double-chamfered arches on thinner columns with volute capitals and decorative heads. A Perpendicular tower arch with moulded jambs and capitals supports a 19th-century wooden screen in Decorated style at its base. A wide, pointed, double-chamfered chancel arch in 19th-century style spans the chancel entrance.

The nave boasts a fine 15th-century heavily moulded ribbed roof with carved central bosses; the chancel and nave aisles have 19th-century copies. A mosaic reredos, panel-tracered wooden choir stalls with elaborate poppy heads, a brass altar rail, and a pulpit designed by Norman Shaw furnish the chancel. Nave pews are exceptionally simple but are also probably by Shaw. Several stained glass windows adorn the church, notably a fine 1876 east window by Edward Burne-Jones, an 1894 window to the south, and a 20th-century window to the north of the chancel.

Memorials

The church contains numerous memorials of considerable interest. In the north nave aisle stands a fine wall memorial to Rogerus Rooe, dated 1613, executed in painted limestone with a classical aedicule topped by a coat of arms. Below, within a semicircular arch, kneel two figures—a man and a woman—with an altar between them, inscribed 'Hic iacet Rogerus Rooe de Alport AR. Qui Obiit 30 Aprlis AN Dom 1613'. Beneath appear eight small praying girls.

The east wall of the north aisle displays an alabaster plaque from 1492 commemorating Robert and Julia Gilbert. It features a central figure of the Virgin and, to the sides, the kneeling figures of Julia with numerous daughters and Robert with numerous sons, with a Latin inscription running around the edge. Adjacent to this is a small brass memorial to Fridswide Gilbert (probably early 17th-century) showing a lady in Elizabethan dress. Above stands a classical-style memorial with swags and cherubs to Carolius Greaves, dated 1729.

The north side of the chancel contains a 14th-century knight's effigy with his feet resting on a lion. At the centre of the chancel lies a fine marble and alabaster tomb to Thomas Cockayne, who died in 1488. It features a diminutive effigy of a knight in armour with his feet on a lion and his head on a chicken; figures of angels flank the sides, holding painted coats of arms. Other memorials include two 19th-century marble monuments in the aisless part of the nave and one in the tower with a coat of arms dated 1685. Two 18th-century charity plaques and a lead plaque inscribed 'ED MOORE VIC IONT / CLARK RICH LONG- / DEN IAM ASHBOURNE / CH WARDENS 1701' also appear in the tower.

Font and Other Features

A stone font in the nave dates to the 12th century. It features a round bowl on a central stem surrounded by four small columns. The bowl is carved with decorative motifs and, on its south side, has an additional small bowl supported by a salamander corbel. This font was moved to All Saints from Elton Church in the 19th century. Opposite the font, to the west of the north arcade, stands a small figure in a semicircular niche, probably a carved pilgrim. Two large slate commandment plaques, probably 19th-century, sit in the porch outside.