Church of All Saints

Details

SU 86 NW
10/25

WOKINGHAM
WILTSHIRE ROAD (east side)
Church of All Saints

12.11.51

II*

Parish church. Late C14 on an older site, tower and clerestory added C15, chancel and aisles largely restored in the style of the C14, in 1864-6 by Henry Woodyer; external stonework to tower restored in 1880. Roof restored in 1985-6. Tower and clerestory, dark brown square Ferricrete blocks, with Bath stone dressings; remainder Bargate stone squared rubble. Lead roofs to nave and tower, tiles elsewhere. Chancel, north chancel aisle with organ chamber; south chapel, north east vestry, nave, north and south aisles, south porch and west tower.

Tower: three stages with plinth and embattled parapet. Square angle buttresses, and a stair turret on south east corner rising above parapet with a tall, pointed, stone pinnacle and iron weathervane. West doorway has old jambs, wide casement mould and a two-centred arch under a C19 square head. Above is a C19 window with five cinquefoil lights under a traceried, two-centred head. Second stage, a restored west window of three cinquefoil lights with traceried four-centred head; and a clock dial on the south and west sides. Bell chamber has windows of two cinquefoil lights under four-centred heads.

North aisle: Three C19, three-light windows with tracery under a square head; a pointed three-light window in the west wall; Five, two-stage buttresses between each. South aisle: Windows similar to north aisle and with four, two-stage buttresses between. South doorway between second and third windows is C12 in style, with zig-zag ornament. The porch has two small windows in each side wall and a pointed entrance archway. Chancel: east window of five-lights under a traceried head. South wall has two, two-light windows.

Interior: five bay nave roof of arch braced collars and redundant crownpost; all moulded and with tracery between tie beams, rafters, and traceried spandrels to four-centred arch bracing below the ties; moulded jack posts supported by C19 stone head corbels. The principal rafters, clasped purlins and ridge piece, are chamfered and moulded; one of the tie beams has a date of 1631 carved in it and the inscription '1L & T.S.'. High north and south arcades, each of five bays, the outer ones on the east and west are four-centred arches and wider than the intermediate, which are two-centred. The columns are circular and are of chalk except the second column on the north, which is C19 stone. The octagonal bases are probably Norman, with a roll and hollow chamfer mould; the circular capitals have shallow mouldings on an octagonal abacus. The arches are of two orders, with a double ogee moulding and chamfer. The aisle roofs are C19, with carved hammer-beam trusses and plain rafters. An arcade of two bays divides the chancel from the organ chamber; and a similar arcade on the south, with a smaller bay to the east opens into the chapel. On the north wall of the chancel, is a trefoiled recess with a credence shelf; the reredos is of carved stone. A carved oak screen divides the chancel from the nave, and an iron screen the chapel. The C15 font is octagonal with traceried, panelled sides containing roses and other flowers; and has a hollow chamfered under-edge carved with inter-twined tree branches. The stem has panelled sides and a moulded base. Stained glass east window by Hardman.

Monuments: include a small black marble slab on the north wall of the vestry, with a Latin inscription to Thomas Godwin of Christ Church Oxford, Bishop of Bath and Wells, born in Wokingham, and buried there in 1590. On the south wall of the south aisle, is an undated C16 mural monument with a brass, enclosed in a rounded-headed panel of black marble, enriched by a guilloche; on the brass, figures of a man and woman kneeling at a desk, with an inscription below them in English verse. To the right of this is a C18 cartouche to Humphrey Cantrel Sen., and Humphrey Cantrel Jun. On the north wall of the north aisle, is a cartouche to Edward Cotton of Wokingham, who died in 1682. The church tower forms an important visual element to the eastern end of Rose Street, and to the eastern entry to the town.

Listing NGR: SU8152368801

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

41788

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (1966), 307
Ditchfield, P H, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Berkshire, (1923), 226

Websites
British Geological Survey, Strategic Stone Study, accessed 04/02/2020 from https://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/buildingStones/StrategicStoneStudy/EH_atlases.html

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