Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This church has 12th-century origins but was largely rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries, with significant 19th-century restoration. It is constructed from squared coursed and regular coursed limestone and ironstone with a lead roof.

The building comprises an aisled nave, chancel, north chapel, south porch, and west tower. The south elevation of the chancel features a range of three 2-light Perpendicular windows with square heads, beneath a shallow gabled roof with plain ashlar parapets. A rainwater head on this elevation is dated 1891. The 3-light Perpendicular east window lights the chancel, while the north elevation has a 19th-century vestry attached, featuring a 2-light east window and north door, with a rainwater head inscribed with the initials 'J.T.'.

The south aisle displays a 2-window range of 14th-century windows with quatrefoil tracery, along with 3-light east and west windows featuring segmental heads, all beneath a lean-to roof with ashlar parapets. The central south porch has a 12th-century outer arch with spaces for three orders of shafts, stiff-leaf capitals, and zig-zag decoration; the inner arch dates to the 14th century and features roll mouldings. The porch is finished with ashlar gable parapets and a finial base.

The north aisle and north chapel extend across four bays, with a 3-window range of 14th-century square-head windows featuring ogee-head tracery and carved label stops. The north door, set in the bay to the right of centre, has a stepped and chamfered semi-circular arch head. A small low-side square-head window appears in the left bay. Two-stage buttresses divide the bays. The nave clerestory is lit by 2-light square-head windows beneath a shallow gabled roof with ashlar parapets.

The decorated west tower rises through three stages with clasping buttresses to the western corners. The west door features roll mouldings and is topped by a niche with a nodding ogee head and lozenge surround. Diamond windows with cusping ornament the south face of the first stage and the west face of the second stage, while the south face of the second stage has a 2-light window and the north face a single lancet. The upper stage displays 2-light bell-chamber openings on each face, topped by a frieze with ogee heads and quatrefoils in the spandrels. A castellated parapet with cross slits crowns the tower, with a flat-topped stair turret behind the parapet in the south-west corner.

The interior features a single-bay nave arcade of double chamfered arches in limestone and ironstone, supported by octagonal piers. The north arcade includes one quatrefoil pier. Double chamfered arches separate the chancel and the north aisle from the north chapel, while a triple chamfered arch frames the tower opening. The roof structures throughout date to the 19th century. A doorway with a 4-centre head provides access to the former rood loft staircase. The south wall of the south aisle contains a recess with an arch head featuring roll moulding, a stiff-leaf finial, and flanking pinnacles. Perpendicular screens occupy the arches opening to the north chapel.

The font is a tub design with a central column support surrounded by four detached columns, with four carved heads around the bowl. A piscina or holy water stoup is similarly supported on a detached column. A late 17th-century pulpit is present, along with early 19th-century pews, those on the south side having doors. The south porch retains a plank door with its original lock.

The church contains several important monuments. John Bloxham (died c.1519) is commemorated by a brass figure to the left of the altar, with a scroll emanating from his head, set upon a plain chest-tomb. Sir Henry Vere, who died in 1493, is represented by an alabaster effigy in the north chapel, formerly a chantry chapel. Various 18th-century tablets to the Lambe family and 19th-century tablets to the Tyley family are located in the chancel.

Stained glass includes reset medieval glass in the low-side window of the north chapel, with further fragments of medieval glass in a north aisle window. The east windows of both the chancel and south aisle contain 19th-century stained glass.