Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A parish church dating from around 1400, substantially rebuilt in 1567 when the nave walls and tower were raised, with a staircase tower added at the same time. The Ingilby pew, known as the Patrons Choir, and the south vestry were probably added in the late 16th or early 17th century. A restoration including refenestration took place in 1862-63.

The building is constructed of coursed squared gritstone and ashlar with grey slate roofs. It comprises a two-stage west tower with diagonal buttresses and a stair tower against the south side; a five-bay nave with lower north and south aisles; and a three-bay chancel with the Patrons Choir to the north and a south chapel with organ and vestry to the south.

The tower's upper stage is noticeably narrower than the lower, indicating the 16th-century heightening. It contains two-light belfry openings with chamfered mullions. The lower stage has a west window of three trefoil-headed lights. A crenellated parapet crowns the structure.

The nave and aisles feature a south porch rebuilt in 1863 with a gabled roof and deeply-chamfered Gothic-style arch. The clerestory and aisle windows are flat-headed with paired cusped lights (restored). Those to the aisles retain original hoodmoulds formed by a continuous eaves moulding with vertical mouldings terminating in small head stops. The north fenestration is similar. The south chapel and vestry have two board doors in deeply-chamfered pointed surrounds, a central three-light Decorated window, and a smaller two-light window to the right. The chancel east end has a Decorated east window of three lights. The Patrons Choir on the north side is lit by two windows with cambered heads and paired cusped lights and is entered through a board door.

Interior features are notable. The south door is made of large coarsely cut planks. The nave arcades have cylindrical columns on the north side and octagonal columns on the south, with double-chamfered Gothic arches. The eastern bays have low arches, that on the south spanning the tomb of Sir Thomas de Ingilby and his wife, dating from around 1369.

This large chest tomb has four weepers to each side in crocketted niches (some mutilated) and shields displaying the Ingilby star and other badges including three greyhounds in relief. A band of lettering runs around the top of the chest, which bears the life-size recumbent effigy of the knight and his lady. Opposite this tomb, in the south wall of the aisle, stands a finely carved piscina, indicating the position of a nearby altar.

The tomb of Sir William Ingilby (died 1617) stands against the south wall of the chancel. It comprises a chest tomb with shields representing local families, upon which lies the recumbent figure of Sir William in full armour with his helmet separately carved and at the time of survey placed against his legs; the feet and hands are missing. The plaque above is decorated with the Ingilby crest, a skull, and cherubs in flamboyant scroll decoration. The inscription records that the memorial was erected by the executors Sir Peter Middleton and Thomas Ingilby and includes a valedictory poem likening Sir William to a single bee—a pun on the Ingleby name. A later carved inscription below reads 'NO POMPE NOR PRIDE / LET GOD BE HONOURED'. A squint behind the monument allows a view from the vestry, and there is a finely carved piscina and aumbry in the south wall near the altar.

Two double-chamfered arches on the north side of the chancel open onto the Patrons Choir, which contains marble and brass memorials to the Ingilby family dating from the 17th century. The remains of a fine, massively carved rood screen, probably of the 16th century, stands at the east end of the south aisle, featuring an ogee arch and a brattished cross beam with shields; the timbers are ovolo moulded and pegged. The present rood screen and choir stalls were installed in 1885. The font in the base of the west tower was donated in 1863.

Historical context indicates that the church was rebuilt on its present site following the collapse of an earlier building further south. The 14th-century tomb and possibly the north nave arcade masonry are thought to have originated from that earlier structure. Sir Thomas de Ingilby, buried in the church, was the earliest recorded Ingilby of Ripley and served as a Justice of the King's Bench. The secondary inscription on the 17th-century monument is thought to have been carved during the occupation of the church by Cromwell's troops following the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644. Sir William had been a Roman Catholic, and his family was suspected of involvement in the Gunpowder Plot and severely persecuted. He was succeeded in 1618 by his nephew William, who supported the Royalist cause during the Civil Wars and was imprisoned and fined.