Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is an Anglican parish church largely dating to the 14th and 15th centuries, with some 18th-century alterations and a 19th-century restoration. It is constructed of coursed and squared rubble with slate and lead sheeting roofs, and freestone dressings. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, a south porch to the nave, and a small south porch to the chancel, along with a west tower. The architectural style is Perpendicular.

The plain, unbuttressed tower has a parapet and features single 2-light bell-chamber windows with stone grilles. A narrow west window has had its tracery removed and now contains leaded lights; a 17th/18th-century doorway with a studded door sits below, alongside a clock. The nave has a clerestory, parapet, and lead rainwater goods, and is punctuated by 2-light square-headed windows. The south aisle has four bays, buttresses, pointed-arch heads to 3-light windows, and a parapet with coping. The small, two-storeyed, unbuttressed south porch has a parapet with coping, a plain outer door opening, a flagstone floor, a stoup, a moulded inner doorway, ribbed and studded doors, and a wall monument from the 18th century. The north aisle similarly has four bays, buttresses, pointed-arch heads to 3-light windows, 2-light windows at the east and west ends, a north doorway, and a parapet with coping. The two-bay chancel has buttresses, 2-light pointed-iron windows, a four-light east window, and a priest’s door to the south with an unusual ashlar porch, likely from the 18th century, featuring a 4-centred arch outer door opening.

Inside, the church has plastered walls and flagstone floors, with an encaustic tile pavement in the chancel. The nave retains a good, medieval tie-beam roof supported by fine carved corbels, with some painted decoration above the former rood, depicting figures of angels. Lean-to roofs extend to the aisles, which have bosses. The chancel has a good, arch-braced roof. The arcades between the nave and aisles are four bays wide, with piers of four-hollows section. The church boasts an outstanding 12th-century font, a tub-shaped basin with blank arcading, supported on carved figures of large monsters. A niche with a Decorated-style surround, two piscine, upper and lower entrances to the rood, and a stair are also present. A good, early 18th-century pulpit with rich carving stands alongside some 18th-century box pews and 19th-century pews in a conforming style. C18 panelling adorns the chancel walls, and a branch is dated 1718. The church also contains mid-19th-century altar rails, a tile and mosaic reredos, a rood screen dated 1889, and a late 19th-century west organ gallery incorporating carved panels of late medieval work, including a pelican with the Crown of Thorns. There are five 18th-century wall monuments, including two by King of Bath of good composition, along with four early/mid 19th-century examples. Three 18th-century floor slabs are also present. The west window contains fragments of 15th-century glass; six mid/late 19th-century stained glass windows are also found throughout the building, with the remainder of the openings featuring plain diamond-paned leaded light. Reused Jacobean work is incorporated into the choir stalls, and two 18th-century busts of cherubs are present.