Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is an Anglican parish church comprising medieval and 19th-century elements. The 19th-century parts are built of coursed squared purple rubble stone with Bath stone dressings and plain tile roofs. The medieval tower and lower part of the west wall are constructed of big squared pale purple sandstone blocks, while the porch is of local brown rubble stone.

The Tower

The medieval tower has a battered base and three stages with four moulded courses, the topmost carrying corner rainwater spouts beneath a crenellated parapet. A square northeast stair tower is present. The base moulding is interrupted by a pointed west doorway with hollow moulding between two wave mouldings, executed in red stone with stone voussoirs. The door is of planks with cover strips and iron hinges. Immediately above is a renewed recessed flat-headed two-light window with cusped lights. The second stage has one very small square recessed vent on each side and a larger single-light window on the south. The taller bell stage contains small recessed two-light louvred bell openings, flat-headed with ogee-cusped lights.

The Main Body

The church body features coped gables with cross finials, a lower chancel, a north aisle with catslide roof, and a big gabled northeast organ chamber and vestry. The style is late Decorated to early Perpendicular Gothic. The south side of the nave has a porch and three large pointed two-light windows with varied tracery, hoodmoulds and a sill course carried around a stepped buttress at the right end and quoins at the left end. The porch has rubble side walls and a coped gable, with a 19th-century front featuring a moulded pointed entry. Within, the porch contains a late medieval barrel roof of three by six panels with a wall plate of triple-roll moulding. Stone benches line the interior, with small single-light windows on each side and a plain chamfered pointed south doorway with a pyramid stop and plank door.

The north aisle has four flat-headed windows with cusped ogee tracery (three two-light and one three-light) and one similar single light at the west end, without hoodmoulds. A small windowless projection at the right end of the aisle, containing a pump for an immersion font, has ashlar quoins. The chancel has a battered base and three large square-headed two-light south windows with cusped reticulated tracery and deep hoodmoulds. The first window is longer, with the sill course stepping up before the second window. The east end features quoins above plinth level, a high string course, and a three-light east window set higher with cusped panel tracery and ogee heads to the lights. On the north side of the chancel, a string course is carried around beneath one window similar to those on the south, then a big gabled block contains an ashlar chimney on the ridge close to the south end, now missing its octagonal stack. A coped north gable carries two flat-headed traceried two-light windows without hoodmoulds, a shouldered-headed west door accessed by steps, and basement steps.

The Interior

The interior is tall and imposing, with unpainted rendered walls and Bath stone dressings. The roof comprises five main arch-braced collar trusses and four intermediate ones, with the main trusses carried down onto wall-posts. An ashlar four-bay north arcade has octagonal piers with moulded caps and two-chamfer pointed arches. A broad high chancel arch features similar detailing. The tower's east wall shows the mark of a line of lower medieval roof. A segmental-pointed tall tower arch contains a 20th-century timber traceried infill. A small segmental-pointed door to the right leads to the stair tower, which contains oak beams to its upper floor. The north aisle roof has principals similarly carried down as wall posts and braced from corbels on the arcade wall. At the left end is a door to the pump for the immersion font. The north end wall has a pointed doorway into the choir vestry, featuring an oak screen by Clarke of Llandaff.

The long chancel is accessed via two steps at the chancel arch, one to the sanctuary, and four to the altar. The chancel roof consists of four main trusses and three intermediate ones, moulded, with panelling only in the final bay over the sanctuary. A large segmental-pointed north opening accommodates the organ, with a hoodmould carried around as a string course, and a shouldered-arched vestry door to the right. On the south side is an ogee cusped piscina with carved spandrels and hoodmould, enclosing a tiny medieval ogee stone piscina with moulded shelf. Fine triple sedilia feature stepped seats and ogee cusped heads with a deep hoodmould bearing portrait heads of a vicar and Bishop Oliphant. Traceried tiny openings appear in the piers between the seats. Floor tiles by Godwin of Lugwardine include unusual glazed green outlining tiles. A vestry, parallel with the organ chamber, has a high three-sided board ceiling, a piscina by the door, and a choir vestry across the north end with a shouldered-headed doorway. A big ashlar segmental-pointed arch separates two parallel roofs.

Fittings and Furnishings

A fine large openwork screen of 1874 features three-one-three bays with ogee heads to the lights and much open tracery above the side lights, with a brattished beam. Three figures carved in Oberammergau, formerly in Llanfrechfa Grange chapel, were added above. A large carved stone reredos by James Redfern of 1874 depicts the Last Supper in relief across three panels, with a brattished ballflower cornice and blind-panelled base on two purple marble steps. An octagonal font displays cusped quatrefoils on each face, with doves in four of the quatrefoils. A large total immersion font in the northwest corner is set within an altar-table casing with three quatrefoil panels and four blind traceried panels on its front, topped with a wooden lid. An oak pulpit features a panelled openwork Gothic three-sided front and a moulded ashlar base with steps. A brass eagle lectern commemorates the Mitchell family and dates after 1913. Pine pews and oak stalls with poppyhead finials are present, with added open-fronted front kneelers. Twentieth-century oak altar rails and an oak altar with white marble top complete the furnishings.

Stained Glass

The east window of 1874, by Clayton & Bell, depicts Christ in glory with Saint Peter, Isaiah, Saints Alban and Helena, and Evangelist symbols in the tracery, to the memory of F. Mitchell (died 1863). It has a blue ground with rich reds. Three south windows by the same firm are also of 1874 though their commemorated individuals have later death dates. The first (from right) shows the Resurrection and Christ in the garden, to the Reverend W. Powell (died 1874); the second depicts Christ with Saint Thomas and appearing to the fishermen, to Jane Griffith of Llanyrafon (died 1880); and the third shows the Ascension and Vision of Saint John, to Florence Griffith of Llanyrafon (died 1886). These three feature alternate red and blue backgrounds.

A chancel north two-light window by George Rogers of Worcester commemorates Frances Prothero (died 1847) and Captain R. Macdonald (died 1854), with two small scenes of Noli me Tangere and Suffer the Children, probably removed from a previous church. In the nave south, the first window (1916) by Daniells & Fricker of Fulham depicts the Boy Christ between two saints and commemorates John Williams. Two windows by Lavers & Westlake show the Good Shepherd and Sower, to F.H. Mitchell (died 1891), and the Crucifixion and Healing the Lame, to Laura Mitchell (died 1884), both of good quality C14 style.

The north aisle west single light, by Lavers & Westlake, shows Christ with a child, to W.S.F. Cleeve (died 1895). The second window, by Sunlight Studios of Portsmouth, commemorates Corporal D. Denbury (died 1991) and features daffodils, an angel and a dragon. The third window, by William Pearce Ltd of Birmingham, depicts Christ and Saint Martin and commemorates Major Edmund Williams, killed 1915, with good colours. The fourth window (1914) by Kempe & Co. shows Saints Francis, Elizabeth and David.

Memorials

A plaque with egg-and-dart ornamented bolection moulding commemorates Charles Griffiths of Llanyrafon (died 1696) and Margaret Griffiths (died 1730). An oval plaque records Charles Griffith of Llanyrafon (died 1766), his two sons, and Margaret Tuder (died 1769). A crude broken pedimented memorial with column shafts and oval plaque marks Roger Jones (died 1804). A neo-Grec memorial by Cooke of Gloucester commemorates William Griffith of Llanyrafon (died 1831). A marble and alabaster bolection-moulded plaque records F.J. Mitchell (died 1913).