Church Of All Saints

Church of England mission church and cemetery chapel, built 1870-71, designed by I.T. Shutt and A.H. Thompson. Constructed in rusticated gritstone ashlar with Westmorland slate roofs in Gothic style, predominantly Early English.

The church is orientated parallel to Otley Road to the south, only approximately following the conventional east-west axis. The plan comprises a 3-bay nave with transepts and an apsidal-ended chancel, flanked by a vestry to the south and an organ chamber to the north. A gabled south porch with an attached round bell tower extends beyond the west end of the church.

The roofs are laid to diminishing courses with an intermittently crested ridge. Gables are raised and coped with shaped kneelers. The east, west and transept windows feature plate tracery, while other windows are cusped lancets, either single or paired. Only the 4-light west window and porch doorway have drip moulds. The 3-light east window is set within the apsidal chancel beneath a low gable projecting from the hipped roof. Small lancets high in the gables above the west and transept windows, now glazed, may have been designed as ventilation slits.

The circular bell tower has three stages. The tall base stage contains simple lancet windows lighting its interior and small quatrefoil windows positioned just below the nave roof ridge. Above these runs a finely dressed course incorporating bud corbels and small trefoil gablets above each quatrefoil. The short second stage forms the bell chamber with 4 louvred lancets. The top stage is a round spire supported by simple corbels, banded with stones shaped to resemble narrow courses of round-ended tiles in three bands.

The apsidal chancel contains a 3-light east window flanked by lancets, all with pictorial stained glass. The exposed timber roof structure is supported on simple corbels. The chancel arch features an inner arch ring supported on ornate corbels formed as fluted corbels carrying short round pillars with foliated capitals. Each transept is separated from the nave by a pillar supporting a pair of similar arches with matching ornate corbels. The north transept has a doorway to the organ chamber. The nave has a scissor-braced truss roof on simple corbels. Three pairs of nave lancet windows contain pictorial stained glass. The double doors between nave and porch are carried on ornate hinges.

The church retains pine pews in the nave. Hardwood choir stalls and other furniture—including pulpit, lectern and communion rail—were made by Thomson of Kilburn.

All Saints was established as a mission church attached to St Mary's parish, Harrogate, to serve the town's westward expansion. As St Mary's had no graveyard, All Saints was provided with a burial ground, allowing it to serve also as a cemetery chapel. The land was given by the Earl of Harewood. The foundation stone was laid on 19 April 1870, and the building was opened by the Bishop of Ripon on Easter Tuesday, 11 April 1871, though consecration was delayed until 25 August. The church remains unaltered, presenting a high-quality example of a small mid-Victorian Gothic church. Its circular bell tower is architecturally distinctive, reminiscent of Irish bell-houses. I.T. Shutt also designed the grade II* Royal Pump Room in central Harrogate.