Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a building with a long history, incorporating elements from the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with a late 19th-century restoration by G.E. Street. It is constructed from coursed squared stone and ashlar, with a graduated stone slate roof. The church comprises a west tower, nave, north aisle, south porch, chancel, north chapel, and a vestry.

The late 15th-century west tower has offset diagonal buttresses and a wide-angle buttress to the south front, which also functions as a stair tower with three slit openings. A single-light chamfered opening and a clock face are on the second stage, above which is a two-light flat-headed cusped belfry window and an embattled parapet with pinnacles at each corner. The west window itself is a 19th-century addition, a three-light pointed-arched window with a hoodmould. The nave, dating to the 13th century, has three bays. The gabled, late 19th-century south porch contains a board door that hides a Norman doorway with two orders of shafts, carrying scalloped capitals and zigzags in the arch. To the right of the porch are two 19th-century windows, each a three-light, plate-traceried pointed-arched window with hoodmoulds. The north aisle now holds 19th-century windows, except for the west window, which is 13th century and has two lights with plate tracery. The chancel, also from the 13th century, has plinth and offset diagonal buttresses to the east end. A plain board priests’ doorway is on the left, and a pair of two-light pointed-arched cusped windows on the right. East windows are topped with stone copings and gable crosses. The east window, dating around 1300, is a three-light pointed arch with intersecting tracery. The north chapel and vestry feature a 2-light east window similar to those in the nave, with matching windows to the north.

Inside, the north arcade is early 13th century, with three bays featuring quatrefoil piers, octagonal abaci, and double-chamfered arches. The chancel arch is Norman, with nook-shafts, scalloped capitals, a cross along the imposts, and zigzag work in the arch. A late 13th-century effigy of a knight, likely Sir Andrew Nevill of Pickhill, is located in the chancel. The font, dating to 1662, is octagonal and decorated with initials and simple geometric patterns. Architectural fragments are housed beneath the tower, including a 10th-century Anglo-Danish fragment resembling the Jellingein style, depicting a dragon. Additionally, there are fragments of a human figure, a hogback tombstone with a bear motif, a section of a cornice beam displaying hares, hounds, and human heads, and other significant architectural pieces.