Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Kirk Deighton

This church combines early-to-mid 15th-century work with surviving 12th-century remains and substantial restorations carried out in 1849 and 1875 by W Perkin and Son for Reverend J W Geldart. The building is constructed of coursed squared limestone with a lead and graduated stone slate roof.

The plan comprises a west tower of three stages with spire, a three-bay nave with north and south aisles and a central south porch, and a three-bay chancel with a centre door.

The tower rises in full height with offset diagonal buttresses and string courses dividing the stages. The south face features a staircase projection and a narrow chamfered window to the second stage. The belfry stage on all sides is furnished with large paired pointed windows with mullion-and-transom design and Decorated tracery, with hoodmoulds. The tower is topped by a battlemented parapet with gargoyles and plain pinnacles, above which rises an octagonal spire with weather-vane. The west side of the tower displays a deeply chamfered doorway with hoodmould and head stops, and above it a 3-light Perpendicular window with animal stops to the hoodmould.

The south porch has a door decorated with applied Y-tracery within a shallow pointed arch that is hollow-moulded; the hoodmould has weathered head stops and the structure has a stepped gable. The chancel features a board door in a Tudor arch with stepped hoodmould.

The fenestration of the nave and chancel consists of 2-light flat-headed Perpendicular windows with hoodmoulds, and paired trefoil-headed lights to the clerestory. Moulded strings and battlemented parapets run throughout. The north aisle contains a board door in bay 3 within a deeply-chamfered arch with banded imposts, and Perpendicular windows of three, two, and one light respectively, with a moulded string and parapet with roll-moulded coping. The east end displays a 19th-century 3-light window in Decorated style.

An inscription at the base of the tower's south side records the restoration work and the installation of the clock and Cambridge Quarterchimes.

Interior

The north arcade comprises three bays with quatrefoil piers and single-stepped arches. The south arcade has octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. The tower and chancel arches are also double-chamfered, the latter having 19th-century springers and hoodmould.

The baptistry below the tower contains traces of painted plaster above the south stair door and remains of 12th and 13th-century carved stones. The ceiling is a groined vault with roll and fillet mouldings. The font dates to 1874.

In the south aisle, remains of a piscina survive at the east end of the south wall, and a stone bearing remains of an Anglo-Saxon interlaced design is positioned above the eastern arch of the arcade.

The nave roof is framed with moulded ridge and cross beams carrying the remains of bosses. The chancel contains a fine marble monument to Richard Burton, who died in 1656, positioned on the north wall; it features an oval frame containing a frontal kneeling figure.

Historical Context

The patronage of the living was held by the Roos family of Ingmanthorpe until the 16th century. Richard Burton, a Royalist during the Civil War, served as rector from 1648 to 1656. Reverend Richard Thompson was rector from 1747 to 1795 and gave the chalice, paten, and flagon. Colonel Thornton (possibly of Allerton Park) subsequently became patron of the living and sold it in 1794 to Reverend James Geldart. His son and grandson succeeded him, with one of the latter being responsible for the extensive restorations of 1849 and 1874.