Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a Geometrical style parish church comprising a nave with a lower chancel, a north porch tower, and shallow transepts containing a north vestry and south organ chamber. The building is constructed of coursed rubble with lighter freestone dressings, hood moulds and cornices, and has a tile roof.

The north porch tower rises in three stages with angle buttresses and string courses to the lower two stages. The pointed north doorway features two orders of red sandstone nook shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and double Gothic-panelled doors. The east wall has paired cusped lights under a single hood. The second stage contains cusped windows to the north and east. On the southwest side stands a polygonal stair turret. The upper stage is narrower, with shallow angle buttresses topped with trefoiled gablets over quatrefoil panels. Pairs of two-light bell openings sit below a freestone arcaded frieze. The freestone broach spire carries string courses and lucarnes facing the main cardinal directions.

The nave features corbelled rainwater goods. In the north wall, left of the porch, are two two-light windows with foliage stops. The west end has angle buttresses and a three-light window with head stops. The south side contains three two-light windows, with head stops to the central window and foliage stops to the outer windows. The lower south transept has diagonal buttresses and a sill band, with a three-light south window featuring head stops and a single-light east window with foliage stops. The east end is a polygonal apse with diagonal buttresses, a cornice with ballflower frieze, a sill band and three-light windows. The north transept vestry has a pointed east door with red-sandstone nook shafts and stiff-leaf capitals, and a boarded door with strap hinges. The three-light north window matches the south transept's south window. A tall southwest stack features a freestone octagonal shaft and pyramidal cap with arched openings to emit smoke.

The porch has a heavy ribbed ceiling with deep square panels. The pointed nave doorway features continuous roll and keeled roll mouldings with a hood mould bearing head stops. The boarded door has strap hinges. The similar boarded door to the stair tower has a shouldered lintel.

Internally, the nave and chancel have ashlar walls with red-sandstone banding. The seven-bay nave roof features arched-brace trusses on corbelled wall shafts, with a band of trefoils above the wall plate. The two-centred chancel arch has an inner order on corbelled shafts with stiff-leaf capitals, a hood mould and head stops. The chancel has a wooden rib vault on foliage corbels carried on ringed shafts rising from a sill band. The sill band continues as a hood mould over a south doorway and a pointed south transept arch. On the north side the sill band runs over a pointed vestry door. In the sanctuary, rere arches feature ringed marble shafts with moulded capitals and keeled and roll mouldings. The southeast and northeast bays contain cusped arcading below the sills, while the east bay has a reredos comprising a painted foliage band over a stone ledge. In the south bay is a recess below the window for a priest's seat. A north aumbry has two cusped arches with foliage spandrels. The intarsia pavement was added in 1909.

The ornate font has a square bowl, each face displaying three panels with foliage and quatrefoils in relief. The octagonal stem carries four detached shafts with stiff-leaf capitals around the underside of the bowl. The square base bears an inscription to J. Henry Venables (died 1866). The wooden font cover features a scrolled pyramidal ironwork canopy. The polygonal freestone pulpit has cusped niches with marble shafts, figures of Saints Llyre, Paul, John the Baptist, Peter and Afan, and a ballflower frieze below the cornice. The pews are plain, but the choir stalls have poppy head and foliage carving to their ends, with open cusped arcading to the fronts. The communion rails are brass.

In the north wall is a large wooden war-memorial plaque with flanking attached pinnacles and brattishing, designed by W.D. Caroe. Other monuments are relatively simple. At the east end of the south wall are four brass plaques by Hart, Son, Peard & Co of London, commemorating Richard Venables (died 1894), George Venables (died 1888), Joseph Venables (died 1866) and Richard Venables (died 1858). In the nave east wall, south of the chancel arch, are war-memorial brass plaques to John Lister Dillwyn Venables Llewellyn (killed 1917) and George William Dillwyn Venables Llewellyn (killed 1940). A brass plaque at the east end of the north wall commemorates John Lloyd, the first vicar (1883-1902), by C. Hay of Brecon. Above it is a brass plaque to Thomas Rawstone (killed at Ypres 1917). In the north respond of the chancel arch is a brass plaque to Ronald Hunter (died 1905) and Edward Williams (died 1915). Members of the Dillwyn-Venables-Llewellyn family (died 1951-76) are commemorated in a plaque in the south respond.

Most windows contain stained glass by C.E. Kempe. The sanctuary glass forms a complete iconographic scheme from Biblical Patriarchs to Celtic saints. The north window depicts Noah, Abraham and Moses; the northeast window shows Isaiah, King David and John the Baptist; the east window features Christ and Saints Mary and John; the southeast window displays Saints Mary Magdalene, Peter and Stephen; and the south window shows Saints Llyre, David and Afan. Nave windows mostly depict New Testament scenes. In the south wall, the three windows show 'Fear not Zacharius' and 'Behold the Lamb of God', the Annunciation and Nativity, and 'Blessed are the Poor in Heart' and Saint Cecilia. In the north wall, the two windows depict the Crucifixion and the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus. The west window, by Heaton & Butler of London, features figures of Aaron, Moses and Joshua. In the porch east window are figures of Saint Cecilia and Saint Timothy with Saint Eunice, dating after 1908.