Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Parish church situated on Northallerton High Street. The building spans the 12th to 15th centuries, with substantial 19th-century restoration and a new chancel added around 1885 by Charles Hodgson Fowler of Durham. Construction is in ashlar sandstone with Westmorland slate and lead roofs.

The church is cruciform in plan, comprising a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, transepts with a tower over the crossing, and a chancel. A vestry extension was added to the north of the chancel in 1977 and is not of special interest.

The south porch dates from the 15th century and features stepped diagonal buttresses, an archway of two hollow-chamfered orders, an undercut string, a trefoiled niche in the low gable, a stoup to the right, pinnacles to the parapet, water spouts in the side returns, and crude benches inside. The south aisle is 14th-century with 15th-century windows. A reset 13th-century south doorway with an early English pointed arch stands on renewed shafts, with a plinth and stepped diagonal buttress to the left. The windows feature four-centred arches with hoodmoulds and Perpendicular tracery. A plain parapet runs along, and a medieval coffin sits outside the first bay. The two-light west window has Y-tracery with a double-chamfered surround.

The south transept is 13th-century with a 15th-century five-light Perpendicular window flanked by buttresses. A sundial decorates the left buttress, and above in the rebuilt gable sits an angel and shield bearing the arms of Bishop Neville of Durham, dating to around 1450. To the east are stepped buttresses, a sill band, and three lancet windows.

The tower dates to around 1420 and features clasping buttresses. The ringing chamber contains two ogee-headed single lights with hoodmoulds and an 18th-century clock also with a hoodmould. The belfry openings are paired, with each light featuring a mullion and transom with a cinque-cusped head and Perpendicular tracery, all with hoodmoulds. The parapet has pinnacles, and the other sides match except for the clock, which appears only on the north side.

The chancel was rebuilt in 1895 as three bays in better-quality ashlar with a plinth, sill band, stepped buttresses, and crenellated parapets. Windows are in Perpendicular style: three lights to the south and five lights to the east.

The north transept is 13th-century with two lancets visible to the east (the third hidden by the vestry addition), a large diagonal buttress to the north-east, and a heating chamber entrance below. A three-light Perpendicular north window is flanked by pilaster buttresses, and a 19th-century gable with a vesica window sits above.

The north aisle is 15th-century with a blocked north doorway featuring a straight-sided arched head with a hoodmould. Three three-light cusped windows adorn the aisle, with a plain parapet and a matching west window.

The nave's west end is 12th-century, with a round-arched doorway of three chamfered orders (one order shafted) with a hoodmould, strings, and a four-light Perpendicular window above. Pilaster buttresses flank these elements.

Interior features include an early 12th-century north arcade of four round arches of two orders (the inner order of the easternmost arch chamfered), with a fifth arch running into the north-west crossing pier. Circular piers support cushion capitals, and the third pier from the west is notably larger. The nave's south arcade dates to the late 12th century and comprises four arches (a fifth running into the south-west crossing pier) of double-chamfered pointed arches with hoodmoulds, circular piers, and early English capitals.

The crossing arches have Perpendicular bases. Arches feature moulding running out into piers, forming pointed arches of three chamfered orders with labels. Above, keeled shafts rise into the tower from head corbels. The north-east pier contains a stair turret and 13th-century masonry. A 15th-century arch from the north aisle to the transept is wide with two chamfered orders dying into responds. A similar arch from the south aisle to the transept has hollow-chamfered orders. The lancets in the east wall of the south transept are interrupted by a later recess with a leaf capital. In the nearby walls are a simple piscina and a corbel carved with the head of a king.

The chancel's north windows display blind lower traceried panels. The vestry doorway is moulded and pointed with a hoodmould on head stops. Flanking the east window are canopied niches with saints. A stepped three-seat sedilia is visible, along with Perpendicular-style choir stalls and reading desks.

The nave roof features early to mid-19th-century pointed-arched roof trusses, with every second one resting on wall posts set on corbels. Gothic cross-bracing spans between trusses. Flat aisle roofs have ties on curved braces. Transepts have gambrel roofs. The chancel features a wooden pointed-arched waggon roof.

The font is octagonal with a fluted shaft featuring a linenfold motif. The octagonal basin bears the date 1662 on one side, with initials and decorative motifs on the other sides. A tall 18th-century canopy crowns it. Nearby stands a 20th-century money box set on two medieval grave covers.

Monuments throughout the church include an undated inscription tablet (probably 16th-century) surrounded by strapwork in a frame with Corinthian columns on head corbels and a cornice with a putto on the south aisle wall. A white marble tablet on an oval block commemorates Samuel Peat Esq, died 1802. West of the porch is a monument to Susannah Rigge, died 1828, signed by Webster's of Kendal. At the west end, a white marble urn and scroll on a black marble mount honours James Weston Diemer Esq, died 1815, signed by Taylor (or York) Sculpt.

The nave aisle floor contains black marble slabs to Mary, wife of John Rudd Esq, died 1705, and Mary, second wife of Daniel Lascelles Esq, died 1734. At the west end of the north aisle, a wall tablet commemorates Daniel Mitford (of No. 84 High Street) died 1764 and his wife Elizabeth died 1756. A monument erected by Elizabeth, wife of Reverend William Cust of the Rectory of Danby Wiste, died 1819, features a Greek sarcophagus and an urn in white marble on a black obelisk. A monument by William Tyler to Thomas Crosfield, died 1761, displays a white marble cameo on a yellow marble tablet with his coat of arms on the cornice and an urn on a black marble obelisk above.

The crossing floor contains black marble slabs, including one for Robert Raikes of Vine House, died 1709, bearing his coat of arms, and one for Maria, widow of Thomas Crosfield, died 1733. The north transept has black marble floor slabs to Mary, wife of Henry Lascelles, died 1721, and Daniel Lascelles Esq of Stank Hall (Leeds), died 1734, with his coat of arms.

A Baroque grave cover of Marcus Metcalfe, vicar of the church, died 1593, with a raised coat of arms, is propped against the north wall. Part of a carved wooden Perpendicular screen leans against the west wall of the north transept. The sill of the north transept window holds ancient carved stones, including a Saxon cross head, with other fragments visible on window sills of the north aisle.