Church of All Saints

Details

TF 40 NE ELM MAIN ROAD 11/10

23.6.52 Church of All Saints

I

Fine parish church, early and late C13 with a C15 hammer beam roof. Only minor C19 restorations and additions. West tower, early C13 of coursed Barnack ashlar. Embattled and of four stages on splayed plinth. Three stage buttressing with main newel staircase in south west corner. At each corner of bell stage is an octagonal turret, embattled. Moulded main cornice with corbel table of mask ornament. West doorway has round-headed arch of three hollow and roll moulded orders on three recessed shafts. The north and south walls of the ground stage have blind arcading in four bays. Two centred, hollow and roll moulded orders and a continuous roll moulded label. West window of three chamfered lancets above a band of nail head ornament, and the north and south walls have arcading of three bays and two half bays each. Chamfered two-centred arches with continuous label, moulded and the bays divided and flanked by banded shafts. Each wall of the second stage has similar blind arcading of four bays, one pierced, and one half bay. Bell stage, also early C13, with two similar lancet openings with shafted angles in a round-headed arch. Nave of rubblestone with Barnack dressings to windows. Low pitched roof, C15, leaded with C13 corbel table to eaves. Later C13 clerestorey of ten windows to each side. Two-centred arches of two chamfered orders with roll moulded label and mask stops. South aisle, also late C13. Four windows. Two centred arches of two cinquefoil lights with foiled heads. Two C15 windows of three cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery in four-centred arches. South doorway of four hollow and roll moulded orders in two-centred arch. Chancel, C13 with C14 fenestration. Steeply pitched roof. In south wall, two trefoil lights with foiled head in two-centred arch. East window, restored of five trefoil lights with a foiled head. C14 north aisle and C19 north porch. North doorway, particularly fine, early C13. Of seven hollow and roll moulded orders, on attached shafts. Interior. The rear arches to the windows in the west tower are two-centred and double chamfered, on grouped shafts, keeled with moulded capitals and bases. C13 main newel staircase entry in south west corner with gallery at first floor leading to second newel staircase in north west corner. On the ground floor in the north west corner is a small chamber with a ribbed domical roof carried on corbels carved with masks. The arcading to the east wall of the tower is visible in the gable end of the later C13 roof. Tower arch two-centred and of two chamfered orders, the inner on responds of half round, keeled columns. Nave, north and south arcades of six bays with two-centred arches of two chamfered orders with continuous moulded label, on alternating round and octagonal columns with round and octagonal capitals with holdwater bases. Rear arches of later C13 clerestory also chamfered with angle shafts. The roof was raised in C15. Double hammer beam and of ten bays. The jackposts are carved on bullnose corbels of stone and the posts, braces and spandrels are moulded and carved. There are angels with outspread wings at the termination of the hammer beams. North aisle also has C15 roof. East of the north and south doorways is a demi-pier, C13, and probably for a screen. The rear arches of the windows in the south aisle also have angle shafts to the chamfered arches. Chancel arch two-centred and of two chamfered orders, inner on responds of half octagonal shafts. Above the chancel arch and partly obscured by the hammer beam is a C13 two-centred arch, roll moulded on attached shafts. In the chancel and at sill height is a string course, C13, roll moulded. Slabs. In the nave. Eight late C17 or early C18 with inscriptions. Glass. Late C19. One in chancel and one in south aisle by Thomas Curtis, Ward and Hugh, 1898. Monuments. In south aisle wall monument, 1766 to David Waite and Ann, his wife. Wall monuments, 1787 to John Goddard and Sarah, his wife. Pevsner (Buildings of England), p.335. VCH (Cambs) Vol.IVB, p.183.

Listing NGR: TF4698706880

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

48082

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, (1953), 183
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, (1970), 335

End of official list entry

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