Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A church of medieval date, built between the 12th and 15th centuries, standing on the north side of Upper High Street in Harpole. The building was re-seated in 1828 by Charles Squirhill and restored in 1905 by M.H. Holding. It is constructed of coursed squared ironstone and limestone rubble with lead roofs.

The church comprises a chancel, vestry, north chancel chapel, nave with north and south aisles, and a west tower.

The chancel is of two bays, with a 3-light Perpendicular east window. To the south are 3-light Perpendicular windows with straight heads, and a 1-light low-side window to the south-west with straight head and chamfered stone surround. The south side has a priest's door with stepped round-arched head and shafts with waterleaf capitals. The vestry to the north has a 1-light east window with straight head. The north chancel chapel has two similar windows to the north and a north door with chamfered stone surround, lintel and hood mould.

The nave has a 3-bay clerestory with 2-light straight-headed windows. The north aisle contains a 2-light window to the north-east with round-arched head and plate tracery with quatrefoil to the head, a 3-light straight-headed Perpendicular window to the east of the north door, a 2-light window to the west of the door with cinquefoil-headed lights, and a small lancet west window. The 6-panel north door has a stepped pointed arch with inner chamfer, shafts, plain moulded capitals and hood mould. The south aisle has 2-light Perpendicular windows to the south with straight heads and a small vesica piscis east window. The south doorway has a stepped round-arched head, shafts and decorated capitals. The south porch has a hollow-chamfered doorway with hood mould and 2-light Decorated windows.

The 3-stage tower is positioned to the north and south. A blocked west door with plain stone jambs and lintel sits at the base. Above are three blank arches, each with shafts, moulded capitals, hollow-chamfered heads and hood moulds; the central arch frames a lancet window. A cast-iron clock face to the middle stage on the south side has diamond framing, the letters R.S. above, a laurel wreath below, and is dated 1841. The bell-chamber openings consist of coupled lancets. The tower has a plain stone-coped parapet with renewed corner pinnacles and a low pyramidal roof with wind-vane. Offset angle buttresses are positioned to the tower, and diagonal offset buttresses flank the porch, chancel and the north-west angle of the north aisle, with additional buttresses to the north. Most windows throughout the building have hood moulds.

Interior features include a chancel piscina with cusped head and hood mould, and a stone mensa on a rebuilt base to the north of the altar. A door to the vestry has a triangular head and chamfer. A wide double hollow-chamfered arch opens to the north chapel with polygonal responds and moulded capitals. The chapel contains a pair of tomb recesses with many-moulded arches, shafts, leaf capitals and a piscina with cusped head. A double-chamfered chancel arch has inner semi-circular piers with scalloped capitals. A hollow-chamfered arch between the chancel chapel and aisle rests on a carved head corbel to the north, with an outer arch of continuous chamfer. The nave has 4-bay arcades with octagonal columns, polygonal responds, moulded capitals and double-chamfered arches. A carved head corbel is positioned to the north-east. A quadruple-chamfered tower arch has moulded capitals and polygonal responds.

A circular Romanesque font stands on a plain pedestal, its bowl richly carved with leaf-trails, dragons, Tree of Life and fish-scale ornament. A 5-sided panelled pulpit dates probably to the early 19th century. Two sections of a former mid-18th-century communion rail with turned balusters are preserved in a tomb recess. Creed and Commandment boards in the chapel date probably to the early 19th century. Five 18th-century charity boards are present, one signed Samuel Frost Writer, 1748, and another inscribed "Wrote by Thomas Litchfield, 1754".

Roof timbers preserve evidence of earlier construction: beams are dated 1638 and 1657, with another in the vestry dated 1668. Two lead plates from the chancel roof survive, one inscribed "REPAIRED BY/THE REV/MR TYMMS/1769", the other "T.L. D'JNOAS L.L.D/1811". The church contains mid and late 19th-century stained glass windows to the aisle and chancel, together with two stained glass windows of 1905.

Monuments include a wall monument to Mary Jane, wife of the Honourable and Reverend T.L. Dundas (died 1827) and her husband (died 1848), signed by Whiting of Northampton. Three small wall monuments by the same mason are also present.