Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Kirkgate

A parish church built in 1852–54 by Joseph Clarke, replacing an earlier church destroyed by fire. The building is constructed of coursed rubble stone with freestone dressings and a graded-slate roof.

The church is planned on a cruciform layout with a nave and aisles, north and south porches, a central tower and spire, a south chapel in the south transept aisle, and a north vestry in the north transept aisle. It is executed in the Decorated style, tall and compact in proportion.

The west front features panelled buttresses, a 4-light nave window, and 3-light aisle windows. The nave clerestorey has cusped circular windows, while the aisles have 2-light windows. Both north and south porches have steep gables flanked by pointed trefoil windows. The transepts contain 4-light windows to north and south, with 3-light windows to the south aisle and 2-light windows to the east. Doorways lead from the transepts to the vestry and chapel respectively. The vestry displays a chimneystack with paired octagonal shafts. The tower rises two stages above the nave with clasping buttresses terminating in gabled caps and corner pinnacles above a plain parapet. Belfry openings are 2-light with louvres. A tall stone spire is pierced with quatrefoil lights and carries clock faces to the four main directions. The chancel features a 5-light east window and 2-light windows to north and south.

The interior is elegantly proportioned. Nave arcades have round piers with leaf-band capitals supporting double-chamfered arches. Triple-chamfered crossing arches die into the imposts, and the crossing is rib-vaulted with an apex circle for bell ropes. The nave roof is arched-brace construction on corbelled brackets, with scissor braces above the collar beam and pierced tracery in the spandrels. In the aisles, roofs are braced from the outer faces of the spandrels, which feature pierced tracery in both dramatic and unusual fashion. The transepts have 2-bay east arcades similar to the nave but with leaf-band capitals of different design, and arched-brace roofs boarded above the collar beams. The chancel has an open wagon roof enriched with blind arcading to the north and south walls. Sedilia are positioned beneath a crocketed arch with pinnacles. East and west windows are fitted with shafted rere arches. Walls are plastered. The sanctuary floor has diaperwork stone tiles, with raised floorboards beneath seating.

The font, in bold Early-English style (1853), has detached marble shafts and leaf-band decoration around the bowl and was probably designed by Clarke, as was the polygonal stone pulpit with blind trefoils. Benches with square panelled ends and buttresses and choir stalls with simple poppy heads and arcaded frontal are later additions. The east window by Hardman of Birmingham (1853) is a memorial to William Wordsworth (1770–1850) and was funded by public subscription. The west window dates to 1891 and is by C.E. Kempe. Other late-19th-century stained-glass windows of definite quality are attributed to Cox, Sons & Buckley and Ward & Hughes, whilst early-20th-century glass is attributed to Heaton, Butler & Bayne.

The churchyard includes a stone wall, iron railings, and an east entrance with rusticated piers and iron gates, possibly of the 18th century.

Joseph Clarke (1819 or 1820–1888) was a London-based architect whose practice was almost entirely devoted to church building and restoration. His known works span from the mid-1840s until his death. He served as diocesan surveyor to Canterbury and Rochester and, from 1877, to the newly created diocese of St Albans. These posts generated numerous commissions in these three dioceses, though his practice extended across most of England. He was also consultant architect to the Charity Commissioners. William and Dorothy Wordsworth were baptised in the previous church, and their father is buried in the churchyard. The church underwent extensive restoration in 1959.