Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A church of the 12th to 16th centuries, substantially restored in 1855. Built of sandstone in ashlar and rubble (some coursed), with stone slate roofs. The building comprises a west tower, a 4-bay aisled nave with clerestory and south porch, and a lower 2-bay chancel with a north vestry.

The tower dates to the 16th century and rises in three stages. It has a chamfered plinth, a stepped diagonal buttress to the left, and a projecting stair turret to the right fitted with three chamfered light vents. The second stage is offset, with a projecting bird's-beak string separating it from the third stage and a chamfered light vent on its south face. The belfry openings on all sides are flat-headed, each containing two round-arched lights. Battlemented parapets crown the tower. The ground-floor west window has three round-arched lights within a segmental arch, with a label bearing shields on stops and at the apex. Above this, on the second stage, sits a clock presented in 1841, contained within a double-chamfered ashlar oculus.

The south porch is 19th-century work in ashlar, buttressed with stepped diagonal forms. Its pointed-arched doorway has two orders, one shafted and the other richly continuously-moulded, with an image niche above. A gable cross crowns the coping. The porch returns have windows of two trefoiled lights, and the inner face retains bench tables and a 19th-century pointed-arched doorway with continuously-moulded detail and head stops to the label.

The south aisle dates to circa 1240 and has quoins. Its fenestration is 19th-century, including two-light windows west and east of the porch and two three-light windows east of the porch, alongside a lancet west window and a four-light east window with tracery of three uncusped circles. A moulded eaves string runs along the south face.

The clerestory is constructed of coursed stone and contains four 19th-century circular windows with Decorated tracery.

The north aisle dates to circa 1330 and is quoined. It has four 19th-century two-light windows with triangular heads and Perpendicular tracery, the lower jambs of a blocked north door, and a two-light east window of similar date. Its clerestory matches that to the south.

The chancel dates to circa 1330 with quoins to the right. It displays two 19th-century two-light reticulated windows flanking an ex situ priest's door of two round-arched orders—the outer order dates to circa 1170 and is shafted with chevron and ball flower moulding, while the inner order is of bowtel section. A moulded eaves string, coping and gable cross define the south edge. The east window, 19th-century work, has four lights with flamboyant tracery and head stops to the label, topped by a trefoil window with matching head stops.

The north vestry with a heating chamber below is 19th-century construction in coursed stone, with two-light trefoiled windows to the north and west.

The interior retains substantial medieval fabric. The four-bay arcades to north and south, dating to the 14th century, have tall double-chamfered pointed arches, octagonal columns with bell capitals, and 13th-century cylindrical responds at both ends. A wide 14th-century double-chamfered four-centred chancel arch spans between the nave and chancel. The tower arch, 16th-century work, is tall, double-chamfered and pointed, dying into the walls without responds.

Against the chancel wall are three-seat sedilia with trefoiled convex-moulded arches, colonette shafts and heads on labels. The piscina beside them displays a matching arch with a scalloped bowl on a colonette. An altar rail with column balusters, possibly early 18th-century, remains in situ.

The High Victorian font and pulpit date to circa 1876 and are executed in white marble.

The south wall of the tower carries three wall monuments with urns commemorating members of the Witham family of Cliffe, who died between 1796 and 1802.

At the east end of the south aisle lie medieval grave covers, one complete with an elaborate cross and sword design, others fragmentary. Also at the east end of the south aisle is an oak chest with five decorated panels and a carved foliage top rail, inscribed "EW 1688".