Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

The Church of All Saints at Polebrook is a substantial medieval parish church with significant architectural remains spanning from the late 12th to early 13th centuries, with further additions in the 14th and 18th centuries. The building was substantially restored in the 19th century. The fabric comprises squared coursed and regular coursed limestone with ashlar detailing. The roofs are covered in lead, Collyweston slate, and Welsh slate.

The church plan includes an aisled nave, chancel, north and south transepts, north and south porches, a vestry, and a south-west tower. The exterior is dominated by lancet windows throughout, typical of the late medieval period.

The chancel's south elevation displays a 3-window range of lancets. The window to the far left is a low side lancet with a central transom and partially blocked lower light. A blocked priests' door with a semi-circular head lies to the left of centre. The shallow gabled roof with Welsh slates features a corbel table with plain ashlar parapet and two gargoyles. Ashlar gable parapets with finials at the apex and eaves complete the composition. A triple lancet east window lights the chancel's east end. The north elevation of the chancel contains a 2-window range of lancets similar to the south side, with a low side window to the far right. An 18th-century vestry is attached to the left bay, featuring a gabled roof with Collyweston slates and ashlar gable parapets. Its east elevation has an arched doorway with a window above, while the north elevation contains a single-light pointed-head window. A lean-to structure attached to the west is probably 19th-century.

The south transept features a 3-light west window with intersecting tracery and cusping, restored in the 19th century. Its shallow gabled roof has finials at the apex and eaves. The east return wall holds a 2-light square-head window with plate tracery, while a lancet window in the east wall of the south aisle is positioned to the right. The west return wall is blank. The north transept's 4-light north window has paired lights with Y-tracery and a 4-centred arch head. Its east return wall displays a 2-window range of 2-light windows with Curvilinear tracery, and the west return wall contains a single lancet.

The south aisle features a central gabled porch with a double-chamfered outer arch supported by crude cluster responds and a semi-circular inner doorway with roll moulding continued as a single shaft. Ashlar gable parapets and Collyweston slate roof complete the porch. The north aisle has a similar central porch, though with a finer mid-13th-century outer doorway featuring a moulded arch with two orders of colonnettes and a single-chamfered inner doorway. Its shallow gabled roof displays ashlar parapets and finials at the apex and eaves. Some original roof structure remains. The steeply gabled nave roof has Collyweston slates with ashlar parapets and finial.

The south-west tower comprises two stages with 3-stage clasping buttresses to three corners of the lower stage. Lancet windows on the south and west faces of the lower part of the first stage feature dogtooth decoration above; the south window is blocked. A west window above displays trefoil cusping. A wooden clock face with a single-handed mechanism is positioned over the window. The upper stage contains 2-light bell-chamber openings with transoms on each face, featuring a central column and cluster shaft responds. The lower lights are blind. Semi-circular hood moulds surmount these openings, which are set within recessed panels with sections of corbel table above each. A broach spire with three tiers of lucarnes sits atop; the lower tiers are of 2 lights with a central column.

The interior reveals a 3-bay nave arcade. The north arcade features semi-circular double-chamfered arches with circular piers and semi-circular responds topped by waterleaf capitals with square, notched abaci. A section of wall exists between the centre and east arches. The later south arcade is similar in character. A triple-chamfered tower arch opens to the west, with a similar arch on the return wall of the tower facing the south aisle. A semi-circular, double-chamfered chancel arch echoes the north arcade design. A 2-centred, double-chamfered arch connects the north aisle and north transept, with a short cluster shaft respond supported on a corbelled bracket.

The nave roof features queen posts braced to collars, with a date of 1636 marked on one purlin. Three additional purlins are decorated, and the cross beam displays cross keys with short square wall posts. The chancel roof contains a king post truss braced to the ridge, with original moulded beams and carved bosses. Both roofs were restored in the 19th century, as were the aisle and transept roofs.

The east windows display fine roll-moulded heads and cluster shafts. A double piscina to the right of the altar has detached shafts and dogtooth decoration. Fine early and mid-13th-century blank arcading adorns the north and west walls of the north transept, featuring roll-moulded heads and detached shafts. A plain square-head aumbry with a 17th-century panelled door is positioned to the left of the north transept altar. The south transept contains a double piscina with a central shaft. The vestry doorway features rosette label stops.

A Perpendicular chancel screen with one-light divisions divides the liturgical space. Late 13th and early 14th-century bench ends in the south transept were incorporated into 17th-century pews, one bearing the date "1B, 1663". An octagonal font features flat trefoil arches around its bowl and detached shafts around its base. A 17th-century pulpit and 17th-century-style panelling surround the altar. An 18th-century poor box stands on a bolection-moulded shaft.

Stained glass dates to the 19th and 20th centuries, principally in the transepts and the south-east window of the chancel. Traces of wall paintings are visible to the left of the pulpit and in the north transept arcade. Evidence suggests an originally steeper pitched roof once spanned the nave and aisles as a single pitch.

Several monuments document the church's use across centuries. A partially legible early 18th-century marble wall tablet to the right of the altar bears a segmental pediment above and cherubs with trumpets and an open book below. Captain John Orme, who died in 1764, and his wife are commemorated by a marble wall tablet to the left of the altar with a broken pediment and naval devices below. Various 19th and 20th-century inscribed wall tablets are distributed through the chancel and transepts, including memorials to Reverend Euseby Isham and the Ferguson family.