Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This church on Norton Daventry Road is a substantial medieval building with significant later additions and alterations. Built in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, it was substantially modified in the early 18th century when the chancel was rebuilt, and again in the 19th century. The church underwent restoration in 1898 with the chancel floor relaid at that time.

The building is constructed of ironstone ashlar with coursed squared ironstone and ironstone rubble, with some limestone dressings. The roofs are copper except for the chancel and south porch, which are tiled. The church comprises a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, a north porch and vestry, a south porch, and a west tower.

The chancel features a 3-light Perpendicular style east window of the 19th century, a south-west door with a moulded surround and plank door, stone eaves, and a stone-coped east gable with kneelers. The nave has a clerestory with 2-light windows with chamfered stone mullions and leaded lights on both the north and south sides, featuring moulded stone surrounds and hood moulds. The north side has windows alternating with arch-mullion windows and a plain parapet, while the south side has a battlemented parapet. The north aisle contains a 2-light Decorated east window, 3-light Perpendicular windows to the north, and a 2-light Decorated west window with a top circle enclosing 3 trefoils. The 19th-century vestry, positioned where a north porch once stood, has a 2-light Decorated style north window. The south aisle has a 2-light Decorated east window, 3-light Decorated windows to the south with curvilinear tracery, and a 3-light Perpendicular west window.

A scratch dial is visible to the left of the south-west window. The principal south door dates to the 13th century and features shafts and capitals (one carved with faces), bearing many moulded arches beneath a hood mould with label stops and a head at the arch apex. A double-leaf 10-panel door of the 18th century hangs here. The south porch has a hollow-chamfered doorway and a 2-light cusped window to the west side. Both aisles retain early 18th-century lead rainwater heads and pipes. A painted sundial marks the south-west end of the clerestory. The three-stage west tower features set-back buttresses to the first stage, a lancet window above and to the south side, 2-light Decorated bell openings, and a battlemented parapet. Most windows throughout feature hood moulds, some with label stops.

Interior

The single-bay chancel has a plaster barrel vault roof with moulded ridge and wall plates. The east window is a 19th-century stained glass work of 1847 by Willement. A double-chamfered chancel arch separates the chancel from the nave. The nave displays fine 6-bay arcades with quatrefoil piers and capitals, featuring one sunk quadrant moulding to the south and two sunk quadrants to the north, with some partly double-chamfered. A piscina with a many-moulded triangular head occupies the east end of the north aisle, while the south aisle piscina has an ogee head. The tower arch is double-chamfered but is largely concealed by an early 19th-century west gallery and a mid 18th-century two-storey west screen behind the organ. The screen features round-headed arches with keyblocks, topped by a former reredos with painted and gilded commandment, Lord's Prayer and Creed boards. A segmental dentilled arch spans the central commandment panel, surmounted by a moulded cornice with a central segmental arch. The nave roof dates to the 20th century, while the north and south aisles retain 17th-century tie beam roofs. A tie beam in the vestry is inscribed "Repaired 1699".

The church contains a complete scheme of 19th-century stained glass featuring single figures and armorial panels in the aisle windows. A late 17th-century communion table stands at the east end of the north aisle. An octagonal Jacobean pulpit is positioned in the nave. Panelled box pews of the 18th century have been cut down and converted to open pews. A fine set of funeral hatchments is displayed. Royal Arms of Queen Anne, dated 1709, executed in oil on board, hang in the tower.

The church contains an exceptional collection of monuments. A brass commemorates William Knight (died 1501) and his wife Katherine (died 1504). A painted alabaster monument with a recumbent praying effigy in a coffered arch flanked by black marble Corinthian columns and outer obelisks, topped by armorial panels, commemorates Lady Elizabeth Seymour (died 1602), second wife of Sir Richard Knightley. Wall monuments include those to Dudley Knightley (died 1602) and Nicholas Breton (died 1624) with a broken pediment flanked by cherubs; Ann Breton (died 1635) with similar proportions, a broken segmental pediment framing a wreathed skull and flanked by obelisks with diamond bosses supported by cherub heads; Anne Verney (died 1633) with a kneeling figure in a round-arched niche with broken segmental pediment flanked by angels supporting arms; Nicholas Breton (died 1658) and his wife Elizabeth with busts of each framed by composite columns supporting a broken segmental pediment; and Charlotte Botfield (died 1825) by William Behnes, featuring a life-size figure of a mourning son.