Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Aldwincle

This is a redundant church built in the 13th and 15th centuries, substantially restored in the 19th century. It is constructed of squared, coursed limestone with an ashlar tower, and has lead and Collyweston slate roofs. The building comprises an aisled nave, chancel, north vestry, south chantry chapel, and west tower.

The south elevation of the chancel features a single tall two-light Perpendicular window and has a gabled roof with ashlar gable parapets. A two-bay chantry chapel is attached to the left of the chancel, displaying a two-window range of three-light windows with two-centred arch heads and hollow reveals. The left window has a high cill with a priest door below, featuring a four-centre arch head and rosette label stops, with rosettes also in the spandrels. Two-stage buttresses between the windows terminate as pinnacles, though only the south-east corner pinnacle remains. The chantry chapel has a lean-to roof with castellated ashlar parapet and walls rendered with pink coloured, scored render. A four-light east window has hollow reveals and rosette label stops. The 19th-century four-light east window to the chancel has plate tracery with a cusped roundel.

The north elevation of the chancel comprises three bays with a two-window range: a tall two-light Perpendicular window to the right and a 19th-century two-light window with plate tracery to the centre. The bay to the left has a lean-to vestry with two-light windows in its north and east elevations. The south aisle extends three bays with a two-window range of three-light Perpendicular windows with four-centred arch heads, and a lean-to roof with castellated ashlar parapet. A two-light west window has reticulated tracery. A shallow gabled porch projects from this elevation, featuring a double-chamfered arch with two-centred head and corbelled responds.

The north aisle comprises three bays with a two-window range of tall three-light Perpendicular windows with four-centred arch heads. A north door to the right has a two-centred arch head and roll moulded surround. All openings are furnished with carved label stops. Buttresses are positioned at the corners, and the lean-to roof has a castellated ashlar parapet. Two-light east and west windows have reticulated tracery.

The nave clerestory consists of three bays with a two-window range of two-light, square-head windows in the outer bays, beneath a shallow gabled roof with castellated ashlar parapets.

The west tower is a fine Perpendicular structure of four stages with a moulded plinth. Shallow pilasters at the corners terminate as crocketed, octagonal pinnacles. The west doorway has a two-centred arch head set in a square surround, with moulded reveals and a crocketed hood mould supported by a single order of shafts; quatrefoils and cusping ornament the spandrels. A three-light west window to the second stage has a two-centre arch head rising into the third stage, with a crocketed hood mould; the lower part of the window is blank. An ogee-head niche appears above the window in the third stage. Pairs of tall two-light square-head bell-chamber openings, with transoms and cuspings, open from each face of the upper stage, featuring double-hollow reveals and lattice brickwork panels. A string course forms a hood mould to the windows. String courses between the stages are decorated at the corners with human heads and animals. A quatrefoil frieze appears above the bell-chamber openings. Central gargoyles on each face are flanked by smaller carved heads, with additional gargoyles at the corners and a castellated ashlar parapet above.

The interior contains a three-bay nave arcade of 13th-century double-chamfered arches with circular piers and corbelled responds. The circular abaci are decorated in places with nailhead ornament. A double-chamfered chancel arch rests on cone corbels with nailhead decoration, and a triple-chamfered tower arch rises beyond. Moulded arches connect the south aisle and chancel to the south chapel. The arch from the chancel features cluster shaft responds with carved shields attached to the capitals.

The original roof structure survives in the nave and north aisle; the remaining roofs are 19th-century work. A piscina in the south wall of the chantry chapel has an ogee head with two quatrefoils in the spandrels, and remains of a piscina exist in the north aisle. An octagonal font is supported on a cluster shaft. A Jacobean communion rail is present. Fragments of wall painting depicting Saint Christopher survive in the nave. A royal hatchment flanked by the Ten Commandments hangs above the chancel arch, and a Spinacre family hatchment is displayed in the chancel.

Monuments include a brass figure of William Aldwyncle (died 1463) in the chancel floor, an inscribed tablet of 1655 in the chancel floor probably to the Culpin family, remains of a chest tomb of John Pykering (died 1637) relocated from the churchyard to the north aisle, and a C17 tablet to John Pykering of which the surround only remains. An inscribed tablet to Daniel Walsh (died 1707) is in the chancel floor, and various 18th-century tablets to the Spinacre family occupy the first floor of the chantry chapel.

Stained glass includes fragments of medieval glass in the aisle and chantry chapel windows, and a late 19th-century east window. The chantry chapel was founded by Elizabeth Chambre in 1489. The Pykering family were ancestors of John Dryden, the poet, who was born at Aldwincle in 1631.