Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A parish church of the 13th to 15th centuries with a Griffin Chapel dating to around 1520. Built of coursed and squared ironstone and limestone with limestone dressings and lead roofs. The church comprises a west tower with spire, nave with aisles, chancel, and south porch.

The west tower, dating to the late 14th century, has two stages. It features four diagonal buttresses, a plinth, string courses, and a cusped lozenge frieze with gargoyles. All openings have hood moulds and mask stops. The first stage contains a heavily moulded doorway to the west and above it a restored double lancet window. The north and south sides each have a single light window, with a clock to the south only. The second stage has on each side a double lancet bell opening. The tower is topped with an octagonal broach spire bearing two tiers of gabled lucarnes on the cardinal faces and a weathercock.

The nave and aisles have moulded parapets and coped east gables with crosses. The three-bay north aisle has two 15th-century double lancets with flat heads to the north and a 14th-century doorway to the west. The east end contains a 15th-century triple lancet, and the west end a 14th-century single lancet. The four-bay south aisle has three 15th-century double lancets, the westernmost displaying late 19th-century Geometrical tracery. A 15th-century triple lancet occupies the west end. All openings have hood moulds and diagonal buttresses support the exterior walls.

The two-bay chancel contains two blocked doorways to the north with two 17th-century mullioned casements above. The east end has a diagonal buttress and a circa 1300 triple lancet with intersecting tracery, partly blocked.

The Griffin Chapel, a three-bay structure, is buttressed throughout and features a chamfered plinth, moulded band, and coped parapet. Its Perpendicular windows have panel tracery and hood moulds. The east end displays a five-light lancet, while the south side has a central moulded doorway with three four-light lancets above.

The parapeted and gabled south porch dates to the 14th century and was reroofed in 1933. It has a chamfered doorway with round shafts and hood mould, with a blank dial above. Each side contains a single chamfered light. The inner roll-moulded doorway, dating to around 1300, has shafts and hood mould with mask stops.

Interior

The nave has a four-bay arcade restored in 1892. The arcades date to the 13th and 14th centuries and feature round demi-shafts with stiff-leaf capitals in the north-east bay and an octagonal demi-shaft in the south-east bay. The piers are octagonal with double chamfered and rebated arches bearing hood moulds. The tower arch is chamfered and rebated with single round shafts and features a late 20th-century glazed screen.

The arch-braced 15th-century roof of the nave was restored in 1898. Both aisles feature fielded panelled dados dating to 1898. The north aisle contains a 1957 stained glass east window and a chamfered doorway to the rood stair. The south aisle has a plain late 19th-century roof and contains a 16th-century eastern arch with shafts and a restored 15th-century oak screen. Wall painting fragments and 15th-century glass survive in the central window of the south side. The south aisle also retains a restored 15th-century roof with moulded timbers and wall shafts.

The chancel was reroofed in 1933 and features timber jambs and a span beam in place of the arch, with the opening closed by a mid-20th-century screen. A plank door to the rood loft survives to the left.

The Griffin Chapel, reroofed in 1933, has a three-bay arcade to the north with quatrefoil piers and heavily moulded four-centred arches. The east window is flanked by single crocketed ogee-headed niches with brackets. An arched piscina lies to the right. The south side contains an arched aumbry to the west and 16th-century glass fragments in the east and west windows.

Furnishings and Monuments

The church retains a 12th-century square font with interlace work, a cross, and fishes, mounted on a 19th-century stem. Fittings assembled from carved and panelled 15th and 16th-century fragments include a prayer desk, altar table, and chair. A late 19th-century oak eagle lectern and octagonal pulpit are present. A framed brass donation board dates to 1684, and Royal Arms of George III hang in the church.

Notable memorials include a Griffin family monument of around 1570 in ashlar with a pilastered base containing a cartouche and scrolls. The main tier has a corniced section with a crested shield flanked by single Ionic balusters, with similar clustered triple balusters beyond. The top features an urn and beast finials with a semicircular centrepiece containing a shell. A moulded medallion with an over-life-size wreathed head, dating to around 1575 and possibly from Braybrooke Castle, sits above an achievement of Arms. Additional memorials include a scrolled painted marble cartouche from 1691, a marble tablet with crest and apron from 1759, and a restored chest tomb with quatrefoil panelled sides and a single shield.

The church was restored in the 17th century and again in 1892, 1898, and 1933.