Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

An Anglican parish church with origins in the 12th and 13th centuries, mostly rebuilt in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and restored in the 19th century, partly under W.B. Paul in 1867.

The church is constructed of local lias stone, mostly cut and squared, with Ham stone dressings and some clay tile stitching in the tower. The roofs are covered in sheet lead behind crenellated parapets, except for the nave and south porch, which have Welsh slates between coped gables.

The building follows a cruciform plan without crossing, with a 3-bay nave, 6-bay north aisle, 1.5-bay north transept with organ chamber, 7-bay south aisle, 2-bay south chapel, west tower, south porch, and low east vestry.

The chancel features a double plinth and string course with gargoyles, battlemented parapets, offset corner and bay buttresses of full height with pinnacles over. It has an elaborate 5-light east window and sub-arcuated and transomed side windows of 4 lights, all of very late 15th-century date. In the south wall beneath the second window is a 4-centred arched doorway with quatrefoil spandrils under a square label.

The north transept is similar in style and date, with a simpler 4-light east window and a 4-light sub-arcuated north window without transome, both under curved labels with headstops. High in the north wall is a small 2-light 13th-century plate tracery window formed in one stone.

The north aisle may be partly 13th-century, with simple plinth, string course with gargoyles, and battlemented parapets. It has angled corner and bay buttresses. The 3-light windows appear to be 19th-century versions of the wider easternmost window. Bay 4 contains a blocked moulded pointed arched doorway, and the west wall has a small square 19th-century window.

The south aisle matches the same types of windows as the north aisle, with similar details throughout. The south chapel has 4-light sub-arcuated 15th-century windows in the east and south walls, with details otherwise similar to the chancel except for angled corner buttresses.

The south porch is mostly 19th-century restoration, with a gabled front, angled corner buttresses, and a moulded pointed arch with a slim cusped lancet above.

The tower is in three stages, dating to the 15th century but with the top stage rebuilt in 1833. It features a full-height octagonal south-east turret and offset corner buttresses to the first two stages with crocketted finials, merging into angled corner buttresses at stage three. There is a plinth, string courses with an offset below stage three, gargoyles, a battlemented parapet with pinnacles. The west doorway has a recut 4-centred arched head under a square label with quatrefoils in the spandrils, flanked by canopied niches. Above is a 5-light sub-arcuated window, whilst the other faces at stage one are plain. Stage two has 2-light windows with almost triangular heads, transomed and with stone baffles, flanked by canopied niches—one set to each face except the south, where there is one niche only. The top stage has similar windows in groups of three, with the centre window having stone baffles and the outer pairs blind, all separated by diagonal pilaster strips and pinnacles.

The interior of the chancel has a fine late 15th-century open roof frame, almost flat, with moulded rib and panel roof with carved bosses. Other fittings are 19th-century, including good sedilia and a reredos of 1887.

The nave was badly damaged by fire in 1845. The four-shaft columns with hollows between retain original detail, though the chancel arch was partly rebuilt. There is a rib and panel vault ceiling and a fine timber pulpit of late 17th or early 18th-century date on a 19th-century base.

The north aisle has one roof bay of 15th-century fragments and an octagonal late 15th-century font.

The south aisle is mostly 19th-century work dating to 1877, but the south chapel has a ceiling matching the chancel, of 15th-century date, with a double statue niche on the corner of the chancel arch and a piscina or stoup on the central column of the arcade.

The tower contains a fan vault.

Memorials are mostly 19th-century, though a good set of 18th-century Keinton stone slabs with black colouring and fine incised lettering survives, including memorials to Mary Michell (died 1756) in the north aisle and to Thomas Bush (died 1753) in the nave.

The east window contains various pieces of 15th-century stained glass.

The first recorded rector dates to 1256.