Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a church dating back to the 13th century, with significant rebuilding in 1859 and a restoration in 1886 by C. Hodgson Fowler. It is constructed of tooled sandstone with sandstone ashlar dressings and slate roofs. The church includes a west bellcote, a three-bay nave with a north aisle, a chancel, and a vestry. The west door is square-headed, with a tall, foil-shaped lancet window above it. A trefoil-shaped window is found in the north aisle. All openings are hollow-chamfered and feature hoodmoulds. A twin-arched, gabled bellcote is surmounted by a gable cross. The north and south sides of the church have two square-headed, two-light windows with hoodmoulds; the south side displays reticulated tracery, while the north side features trefoil-headed lights. The chancel’s south side has three lancet windows, two original and one inserted in the westernmost position. A wall tablet commemorates Christopher Wood (died 1826) and his wife and son, created by Monkman of Malton. The north side of the chancel has two original lancets east of the gabled vestry. The vestry has a shouldered north door and an east lancet. The east window has been rebuilt as three stepped lancets beneath a two-centred hoodmould, topped with a gable cross.

Inside, the north arcade consists of pointed, chamfered arches supported by octagonal columns. All window openings have been widened and deeply splayed beneath chamfered segmental arches. A previously open, quoined doorway is now blocked in the north wall of the chancel. The vestry, originally external, has a chamfered side with a pointed arch beneath a chamfered hoodmould, featuring a decayed stop to the west. Within the chancel is a late 13th to early 14th century segment-arched Easter Sepulchre with filleted roll moulding, and a crocketed, gabled canopy with a crocket finial. The gable tympanum displays a crudely carved depiction of the Coronation of the Virgin, enclosed in quatrefoil moulding, set between foliage carvings. Below this is a tomb with carved, panelled sides featuring paired pointed lights, topped by a band of quatrefoils. The chancel south wall contains a piscina beneath a restored pointed arch. A plain octagonal font sits on a quatrefoil pedestal; it was donated by Viscount Downe and is likely the work of W. Butterfield. There are three late 17th century grave slabs in the sanctuary, commemorating members of the Barnard family. A tall wall tablet on the nave’s south wall is a memorial to Sir Christopher Sykes of Sledmere, the noted agriculturalist (died 1805), erected by his daughter and carved by W. Plows of York. A 19th-century brass chandelier hangs from the chancel ceiling.