Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, West Camel

Church. The building dates to the late 14th century, with fragments of earlier work incorporated throughout. It is constructed of local stone in random coursed rubble with Ham stone dressings. Roofs are mostly lead, but the chancel has plain clay tiles and the North transept has stone slates. Gables are coped with finials, and a lead-covered spirelet crowns the tower.

The church follows a cruciform plan with a two-bay chancel and three-bay nave. A tower replaces the South transept. The chancel has a slight plinth and angled corner buttresses. The East window displays reticulated tracery, while the North and South windows are two-light cusped lancets with quatrefoils above, set within arched hoods and relieving arches. A small simple doorway and squint open onto the South side.

The North transept has part buttresses to the corners and centre of the North wall. Its Eastern window is a three-light opening in a four-centre arch with 15th-century tracery. The North wall contains a very small two-light window with 15th-century tracery of distinctly rural character. The nave has bay buttresses of three different heights. A wide two-centre arched three-light window with 15th-century tracery sits in a recess on the North side; the South wall features a cusped lancet with quatrefoil and a large three-light window with wide pointed arch and 15th-century tracery. The West window is a simple three-light 15th-century window with head bosses in the pointed label, beneath which sits a simple segmental arched doorway. A 19th-century South porch projects a plain segmental arched entrance into the church. The South side of the nave has a crenellated parapet; the North side has a lower parapet with bases for pinnacle finials.

The tower is simple in form, bulging at its base. It comprises three stages marked by slit windows on the South side and a string course below the bellchamber. A corbel table supports the low parapet, which has gargoyles. The lead-sheathed spirelet, added in 1631, carries a weathervane. Bellchamber windows on all four sides feature 13th-century tracery with wood baffles.

Interior

The chancel has a 19th-century arch and an arched rib ceiling with collar trussed rafters. The East window is set in a depressed trefoil rere-arch flanked by two lancet niches, with a stone apron panel—possibly parts of an early reredos. Sedelia and two piscinae of 13th-century date occupy the North and South sides respectively. A long squint connects to the North transept.

The North transept arch consists of two orders with corbel shafts to bell capitals, and a timber-ribbed and bossed segmental barrel vault ceiling. The South transept arch is of two orders without capitals, with mouldings carried down the jambs.

The nave roof comprises a five-bay medieval king-post truss with tracery infill panels, heavy moulded beams, principal rafters, and bold Tudor rose central bosses. An elaborate wall plate and angel brackets feature at each mid-bay, all with modern gold leaf and colouring.

Fittings include a curved pulpit front in 13th-century style (shown in a different position in pre-restoration sketches), and a circular lead-lined font probably of 12th-century date, decorated with intersecting arch ornament on a modern base. The North transept contains two 14th-century bench ends, two chests (one possibly 15th-century and the other 17th-century), and a fragment of a 9th-century Saxon cross-shaft set into the floor. The cross-shaft, discovered above the nave East wall foundations in 1866, displays cable-roll interlaced decoration on two faces. Five bells hang in the tower, the earliest dating to the 15th century.

Monuments include a pedimented plaque to Revd. M. Hill (died 1744); a brass tablet to Revd. J. Hinkesman (died 1746); a plaque with draped urn to E. Aubrery (died 1786) by T. King of Bath; and a marble plaque with urn to the Crowbrow family (died from 1796) by Fishers of York.

History and Alterations

Little is known of the early history with few certain dates recorded. The spirelet was added in 1631. The chancel arch was rebuilt in 1847. Restoration work was undertaken for Revd. W. L. Metcalf by the architect Ewan Christian in 1866. The church is of considerable interest and variety, with much of its character distinctly rural.