Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A substantial medieval parish church dating from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, restored during the 19th century. The building is constructed of coursed squared limestone and ironstone with stone slate roofs.

The church comprises an aisled nave, chancel, west tower and south porch. The chancel's south elevation displays a 2-window range of 14th-century two- and three-light windows. A 12th-century south door opening, now blocked, features a single chamfered semi-circular arch. A central three-stage ashlar buttress rises to a shallow gabled roof with ashlar parapets and finial. The east window contains three lights with reticulated tracery, renewed in the 19th century. The chancel's north elevation is blank, with a north chapel projecting over one bay.

The south aisle features a 3-window range comprising, from left to right, a three-light Decorated window with intersecting tracery, a 19th-century two-light window, and a three-light Decorated window with a roundel now filled with 19th-century trefoils. The aisle has a lean-to roof with ashlar parapets and a two-light square-head west window. The 19th-century limestone ashlar south porch displays a moulded outer arch, gabled buttresses, gable parapets, a niche and finial. The Decorated inner door opening has a cusped arch with one order of shafts.

The north aisle contains a 3-window range of three-light square-head windows with renewed tracery. A 19th-century north door stands to the left with a gabled buttress to the right. A shallow central 14th-century buttress supports the lean-to roof, which features a moulded cornice and ashlar gable parapets. A 19th-century three-light east window and two-light west window light the aisle.

The nave clerestory comprises a 4-window range to the south and 2-window range to the north, each with two-light square-head windows featuring renewed tracery. The roof is shallow and gabled with ashlar parapets and a bellcote at the apex.

The west tower rises in three stages with subdivision to the lower stage. Limestone and ironstone ashlar buttresses flank the corners and centre of the west face's first stage. Single lancets pierce the north and south faces. The bell-chamber openings on each face of the third stage feature two lights with central columns and 12th-century semi-circular arches decorated with nailhead ornament to the south and east faces. A corbel table supports a 14th-century broach spire with two tiers of lucarnes.

Interior: The three-bay nave arcade contains one 12th-century round-head arch to the south east, possibly indicating access to a transept in the original 12th-century church. The remainder of the south arcade comprises 13th-century pointed arches with one chamfer and one hollow, carried on circular piers. The easternmost pier has been modified with two additional renewed shafts to support the 12th-century arch. The north arcade displays two 12th-century responds at east and west, probably reset, with the remainder consisting of early 14th-century pointed arches with sunk quadrant mouldings on circular piers.

The chancel arch is double chamfered and bracketed; the tower arch is triple chamfered. The north chapel (now serving as a vestry) contains a two-bay arcade of double chamfered arches with an octagonal pier and responds.

The painted roof structures throughout likely date from the 1884 restoration. The chancel's south wall contains a trefoil-head piscina and double sedilia. The south aisle features a 14th-century ogee-head reredos with cusping on the east wall, flanked by a piscina to the right and a Decorated window with ribbed shafts. Ogee-head niches flank the north chapel window. A shallow font rests on a short column.

Monuments include a marble plaque in the north aisle to William Munton (died 1832) featuring a cherub's head and draped urn. The east windows contain 19th-century stained glass, and the south aisle window features early 20th-century stained glass.