Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This late Gothic style church is built of red rock-faced snecked sandstone with yellow and buff ashlar dressings, roofed with Port Dinorwic slates and apex crosses. The plan comprises a continuous nave and chancel with north and south aisles, north and south porches, a northeast Lady Chapel and vestry.

The north porch, now the main entrance, is attached to the west end of the north aisle. It is gabled and flanked by chunky angle buttresses with swept offsets and a battered plinth. The top features ashlar panels with relief canopywork mouldings and a shallow apex niche. A pointed arched doorway with very narrow roll mouldings and hoodmould leads inside; the door itself comprises decorative double iron gates. A 2-light square-headed side window provides further light.

The five-bay north aisle has 2-tiered buttresses between each bay with stepped offsets. Three 3-light windows with intricate Perpendicular style tracery are set under hood moulds, with 2-light and 1-light windows at the west and east ends respectively. Ventilation grilles sit beneath each window. A battered plinth continues around the entire church, and a plain ashlar parapet with moulded coping—incorporating a bell at the west end—runs above.

At the northeast, an added wing contains two high trefoil-headed chancel lights above, with two doorways below. The east end is dominated by a large Perpendicular style 5-light window; corner buttresses with offsets and a tall plinth accommodate the fall in ground. A dedication stone dates to 1912. The south aisle mirrors the north aisle in design, with a similar east window and south chancel window. A southeast tower was never built; brick fills the resulting gap. The south porch is similar to the north porch and formed the original main entrance.

The west end is buttressed similarly to the east and features a large 12-light rose window with a semi-circular hood mould. At ground floor level, three single trefoil-headed baptistry lights are evenly spaced beneath a continuous hood mould.

The spacious and airy interior has no division between nave and chancel. Very high north and south arcades rise above a woodblock floor, and the nave was reportedly never fitted with pews. Walls display varied tone ashlar with a red sandstone dado and yellow ashlar above, with pale dressings to windows.

The five-bay north and south arcades feature lozenge-shaped piers with attached three-quarter round shafts on the angles that act as responds to the carved timber brackets of each roof truss in the spandrels; plinth mouldings are present. A boarded timber barrel ceiling covers the nave, enriched to the chancel, and is open to the aisles, with a dentilled wallplate. Aisle windows have deep pointed arched recesses, while chancel windows have stepped sills.

To the north, a heavily moulded 3-bay arcade leads to the Lady Chapel. To the south is a single large arched organ recess. A black and white marble floor marks the chancel. The sanctuary is dominated by a high stone reredos dated 1913, built out from the east wall in Decorated style. It features elaborately moulded ogee arches and saints in canopied niches surmounted by angels on stone shafts. Flanked pointed arched moulded doorways with decorative panelled doors of around 1920 flank the reredos beneath a moulded frieze, with a vestry to the rear. To the south, a piscina and 3-bay pointed arched sedilia complete the sanctuary fittings.

The fittings throughout are of very high quality, mostly dated and commemorative. The octagonal pink marble font, set in the baptistry bay at the west, rests on a stone base with deep red marble colonettes and a decorative cover, created by Halliday in 1915. The pulpit, dated 1913, has a decorative red sandstone base, carved wood panels and stone steps with wrought iron and brass railings. A brass eagle lectern dates to 1913. Six-bay choir stalls north and south are intricately carved, each bearing a commemorative plaque, mostly to the dead of World War I.

The organ originally came from Worcester Cathedral and was installed by Nicholson. The east window stained glass, depicting Christ in Majesty in brilliant colours, is dated 1927 and designed by Karl Parsons, regarded as his best work. Windows in the Lady Chapel date to 1964 and are by L C Evetts. Other glass and the former east window comprise pale pastel quarries.