Description

TQ 2764 SE
795/20/77

HIGH STREET (south side)
Church of All Saints

16-MAR-1954

GV
II*
Parish church. Lady Chapel, tower and south aisle: pre 1150, later C12, C12/C13, later C14/ early C15, early C18, 1723-25, 1836, 1862; nave, chancel, north aisle, vestries, 1891-4 and 1910-14 by Arthur and Reginald Blomfield in Perpendicular style. Fittings by G.F. Bodley and Ninian Comper. Knapped flint, stone dressings, limestone, red brick, chequerwork brick, red brick and stone dressings, tile roofs; C19 work, knapped flint, stone dressings, tile roofs.

Nave with western baptistry, chancel, north aisle with porch, north vestries with polygonal turret, south aisle (originally the nave), outer south aisle (originally the south aisle), tower with south porch, and Lady Chapel (originally the chancel). Nave in five bays. Flint and ashlar aisle buttresses, ashlar clerestory buttresses, at angles running into north aisle parapet. Tall ashlar parapets, at west end of nave with crocketed finials on drum shafts. Three-light aisle windows with flowing panel tracery under pointed arches. Clerestory windows under depressed arches. Gabled north porch. Entrance under depressed arch on plain responds, flanking diagonal buttresses. Gable end in ashlar with recessed panel with running ogival frieze. Moulded parapet, knob finial. Single light under flat hood mould to east and west returns.

Two storey vestries, the entrance flanked by panel traceried window under single storey tiled roof, set against tall polygonal stair turret in ashlar, rising above the parapet. Single foiled light to each stage, terminating in octagonal lantern, a light to each face, under copper roof with tall finial. To west, tall mullion and transomed panel traceried window running the full height of the building. Above the entrance, a tall light with attenuated panel tracery under pronounced hood mould. Pair of similar windows to east end, above single storey vestry room. Rainwater heads dated 1892.

Chancel. Angle buttresses with blind traceried finials, flank five-light panel traceried window. Flush ashlar cill, impost and median bands. Foundation stone, dated October 3rd 1891. Gable end crocketed finial. Six- light western window with panel tracery under four centred arch. Gable end cross. Polygonal baptistry below, north and south doorways, three three-light windows treated as western aisle windows, under pointed arches. Stepped buttresses at the angles rising through string course as slender offset shafts set against the parapet, each terminating in crocketed finial. South elevation of 1890s build treated as the north.

Lady Chapel formerly the chancel. Late C12 to early C13 with many alterations. Early flint rubble in lower stages. South windows replacing earlier lights now blocked, two panel-traceried flat arched windows, 1890s. East window, fragments of late C14 three-light tracery, remainder 1890s.

Embattled tower in three stages. Lower stage largely obscured, said to be C12, upper stages C18. Ringing chamber stage in flint with stone dressings. Single light. Bell stage cement rendered, single opening to each face, in stone architrave. Embattled stone parapet. Faceted copper spire.

South porch in flint with tile roof, largely C19 restoration of C16 or C17 structure. Entrance arch treated as north porch. Above, two-light dormer under half hipped tile roof.

South aisle. Lower courses in flint over brick base, mixed with limestone. C18 clerestory or gallery in brick, part chequerwork, rebuilt in red brick above. C18 buttresses. Blocked doorway, probably, C14. Flanking round headed windows with brick and stone dressings, and of varying height, one set in square headed opening now blocked in limestone. Small rectangular opening to left. Range of four gallery windows under brick round headed arches with brick keystones, with brick and stone impost band and continuous brick cill band. To east single window of similar proportion with stone dressings. Below two similar windows. West wall rendered and lined as ashlar.

Interior. Five bay arcade of quatrefoil piers on tall bases. Trussed roof, alternate bays having pierced spandrels. Rood screen and cross, c1914, by Bodley, painted and decorated by Comper, 1931. Above Christ in Majesty, 1947 by Comper.

Chancel, pierced unglazed four bay clerestory to north. Reredos, a triptych, c1900 by Bodley, panels painted by Comper, 1931-32. Altar cross, 1892, by Reginald Blomfield. Aumbry, c1921 by Comper. Chancel grille, in wrought iron, 1931-33 by Comper. Organ loft, 1931-38 by Comper, a vaulted canopy supported on slender columns all painted, and decorated with figures of saints. Leads to western baptistry. Marble octagonal font, probably by Bodley, gilded and painted cover, by Comper.

South aisle arcade in three bays, late C12/ early C13, polygonal piers and responds with crocketed and waterleaf capitals. Rear arch of blocked C14 doorway in south wall behind render. C12/C13 arch to Lady Chapel from base of tower, possibly former sanctuary of original two cell church. C18 wrought iron screen and gates to Lady Chapel. Lady Chapel three bay crown post roof with moulded wall plate. South east corbel in form of head. North east corbel as lion's head. Trefoil headed piscina. Aumbry. Reredos, early C18, pilasters supporting segmental pediment, painted and gilded by Comper 1936. C18 wrought iron communion rail.

Monuments: Gaynesford monument, chest tomb with brasses above, to Nicholas Gaynesford, d. 1497. Scawen monument, 1722 to William Scawen. Aedicule with Corinthian columns flanking panel with cherub on gadrooned base, clouds and angels above, surmounted by garlanded cartouche, reclining figure with skull below. Fellowes monument, resited from east end of nave, 1724, obelisk bearing arms, on gadrooned basin, flanking urns. Tablet to Edmund Hoskins, d. 1664. Tablet to Dorothy Burrish, d. 1685. Henry Herringman, d. 1703 by W. Kidwell. Pulpit, C18, polygonal, oak with swept stair, tester by Comper. Glass all by Kempe notably Lady Chapel of 1895 and 1900, except north aisle and northern baptistry windows by Comper. Bells, six of 1804 by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel, two of 1845 by Charles Oliver.

Listing NGR: TQ2798464469

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of All Saints official website
• Wikidata Q17531543

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)