All Saints

ALL SORTS IN ALL SAINTS

It is a perfect museum of architecture. All Saints’ contains all sorts of styles, from early to late, and so “is a church of quite exceptional interest”. We hope you will find this true.

I. THE EARLIEST: NORMAN

No one knows when first a church was built here. The oldest of which, traces remain dates from about 1100, or shortly after the building of the keep of the Tower of London. From marks on the north wall of the present church, it seems that the original one was only two-thirds its length, but had a south aisle which ran along the side of the chancel.

Three relics of this Norman church survive. First, some of the stonework of its walls forms part of the present walls; but don’t ask us exactly which parts. Secondly, the jambs, or supporting sides, of the arch leading from the nave into the chancel are very early, and so are the curved stones, known as responds, now hidden by the wooden flooring, from which this chancel arch springs.

But the most exciting fragment of the original church is the third. In the chapel at the east end of the south aisle, there is a double arch. The central pillar of this arch is certainly Norman, and the whole structure has been allowed to remain in spite of the fact that a single and wider arch was later built alongside it, and was presumably meant to replace it.

We can be thankful that this never happened, and so a very curious feature has been preserved in All Saints’ for 850 years.

I1. EARLY ENGLISH

In the year 1215 King John set his seal to Magna Carta on an island in the Thames, at Runnymede. By about that date the main mass of All Saints’ Church, as we see it today, had risen from the ground.

What happened then was that the whole of the original Norman Church was extended westwards, parts of its walls being incorporated in the new masonry. This westward extension made necessary the building of an arcade of five arches between nave and south aisle. They rest on plain cylindrical columns, and confront us as we enter by the south door. Additions in the chancel at this time include a two - light window with simple tracery in the north wall, and the arch on the south side next to the double one in the chapel. Outside the church, five of the buttresses supporting the south wall belong to this period.

But the outstanding feature of the new church was the tower. We still have its two lower stages, built mainly of roughly - shaped limestone, and plastered. In spite of its leaning heavily to the west - a process which probably began soon after it was built - the stonework is remarkably sound, without cracks or settlements. Inside the church, the arch between tower and nave, and the deeply splayed lancet which forms the west window, are typically Early English. A stone vaulting once covered the tower, but this was destroyed when, later, bells were hung.

So by the early 1200’s All Saints’ had taken very much its present shape: a rather unusual one, with its south aisle continuing nearly the whole length of nave and chancel.

III. DECORATED.

The builders of All Saints’ Church in the early l200’s did their work so well that no structural alterations were necessary for two or three hundred years. There was one exception to this. The respond, or ground support, of the most westerly of the five arches inside the church was built up with solid stone so as to strengthen the tower, which was already settling. It maybe that at the same time a start was made on the building of buttresses to support the tower outside. This work occurred during what is called the Decorated Period of English architecture, or about when Edward 1 called the first English Parliament in 1295.

Two interesting additions to the interior of the church were now made also. First, a fine ornamental carving, with niche, was inserted in the east wall of the south aisle, no doubt to form a reredos for the stone altar which stood below. There are only four other examples of such stone reredoses in Lincolnshire, and two of these, of later date than ours, are in the Theddlethorpe churches, so that they seem to have been quite a local fashion.

Secondly, a font was provided, of Purbeck marble. More information about the history of this font would be very welcome, for at some date it seems to have been removed and replaced by another, of some 200 years’ later date. Later again, the bowl of the original font was returned to the church and placed upon the inverted second font, where it stands to this day.

IV. PERPENDICULAR 

On a Palm Sunday, in driving snow, 500 years back, the costliest battle in human lives ever fought on English soil took place at Towton Field, near Tadcaster, between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses. About the same time, and in complete contrast, skilled workmen were peacefully adding many interesting features to All Saints’ Church

The first was the upper stage of the tower, which is built of mixed limestone and the soft greenstone of the wolds, and provided with double bell windows in each face. This heavy weight on an already leaning structure made necessary the huge buttresses at the north-east and north-west corners which are such a characteristic of the exterior of the church. In the nave at the west end two others were built also. Thanks to a restoration carried out in the nick of time ten years ago, the outline of the tower looks now just as it left the builders’ hands in about 1465. (ie. in the 1950’s)

The interior of the church was beautified by two main additions. One of these was the pair of square-headed transomed windows in the north wall of the nave. Viewed from outside, the carved stonework of these windows is both unusual and well preserved. They are typical of the Perpendicular style, of which one of our finest examples is King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. The doorway in the north wall and the stouter buttresses supporting the south wall also date from this period.

The second main addition to the church was the carved oak screen across the chancel arch and on two sides of the chapel. Though stripped and damaged at a later date, enough remains to show that when new these screens must have presented a splendid sight, adorned as they were with glowing colour. They have been described as fine examples of the quite distinctive style of screenwork of the Lincolnshire Marshlands

Finally, the porch was built. With its angled buttresses of brick and stone, and the carved stonework in the gable, it commands the attention of every visitor; but its chief interest lies in the Coat of Arms and Latin inscription over the outer archway. Translated, the latter reads: “This is the shield of John Gray, Gentleman, Patron of this Church.

Two other shields support the central one, the right being charged with a crucifix and the left bearing emblems of the Passion. It is known that a Rector was presented by a John Gray in 1455 and that the family of Gray came into possession of lands in Saltfleetby by marriage as early as 1382. No doubt John Gray headed the renovation of All Saints’ 500 years ago, prosperity resulting from the wool trade providing the means with which it was accomplished.

The loving and elaborate work lavished on an already large church prompts the question whether in those days the population was not much larger than today. This was not so. Money was freely spent on the church to the Glory of God, without any regard to the number of worshippers- nor, we might add, to the problems of those who, hundreds of years later, might be responsible for its preservation. 

V. ELIZABETHAN & GEORGIAN

It is sobering to recall that the last substantial additions to All Saints’ Church were made in the mid- 1400’s. Since then it has faced 500 marshland winters, receiving only such attentions as the ravages of time and weather made necessary to stonework and timber.

The first of these was a re-roofing of the church perhaps actually in progress as battered ships of the Spanish Armada passed Saltfleetby in their north- bound flight and Elizabeth stood among her cheering soldiers at Tilbury. The renewed nave roof, in particular, is massive and unusual being described by our architect, Mr. L. H. Bond, as “interesting, with tall queen posts connected with arched heads, shaped brackets, and carved bosses.” The age of the lead is unknown, but one of the sheets recently examined bore the date 1698, and others later ones.

The little pulpit, snugly fitted into the NE corner of the nave, comes from the same period. Some renewal of the church’s seating must have taken place, for with the exception of the carving on the upper panels, the pulpit is made of painted oak pew- work. Traces of the old paint can be seen inside it. How alterations and renewals continued to be made can be seen from a couple of bequests. In 1537 John Baker left £3.6.8. “to the makying of the South Yle of the Church with a Flat Rufe” and in 1611 Margery Neale left “XXs” to “The repairing and making seats”.

Two centuries now elapsed without any evidence of building work - the longest such period in the church’s history. But the year 1799 saw the removal of the old stone vaulting and the hanging of five bells in the tower. They were cast by James Harrison, of Barton-on-Humber, and the tenor bears the following names: Rev. George Stephenson, Rector, Rev. Richard Kilvington, Curate. James Harrison of Barton, founder. Lancley Gace Hodgson and Benjamin Curtis, churchwardens. Light but melodious, these bells rang out for 150 years, apart from a period recently when the church was closed and the tower dangerous - a reminder that our last chapter will carry us to Victorian and Modern restorations.

VI. VICTORIAN & MODERN 

Generally speaking, Victorian church architecture possesses few merits in modern eyes, and those ancient churches which escaped restoration in that age now count themselves fortunate. Scant regard was usually paid to historical features, many of which disappeared forever under well meaning but misguided hands. All Saints ‘ was luckier than most but suffered in two respects.

In 1873 the chancel was rebuilt, on the old lines it is true, but with complete loss of its ancient character. It was re-roofed - not very substantially - with pitch pine and Welsh slates. At about the same time the porch was, in our architect’s words “somewhat unhappily restored with a light roof covered with Welsh slating”. Quite our best legacy from the last century was the repairing and re-leading of the nearly flat roof of the south aisle, done very skilfully in 1892 and recorded in his diary by William Paddison, our local chronicler.

To come to modern times, in 1909 the whole of the nave and chapel was refloored and reseated with chairs, not without protests from some who deplored the loss of the old pews. A tall oak pulpit, formerly in the chapel of Oriel College, Oxford, whose Fellows and Scholars are the patrons of the living, was given to the church in 1935.

A most timely restoration of the tower and chancel in 1954, and of the eastern half of the lead roof of the nave in 1955, was carried out at a cost of some £3,000, the Historic Churches Preservation Trust contributing liberally. A threefold structural programme would secure the completion of the work then embarked on: (1) the re-leading of the western half of the nave roof. (2) the closure of cracks in the walls and floors of the church caused by a further slight settlement of the tower, and (3) repairs to the angle buttresses and gable copings of the porch.

We have passed in rapid review the 850 years of this sturdy church’s life, and can re-assert that it is indeed “a museum of architecture” on which skilled hands in many ages have laboured. But lest such words give a false impression of its builders’ intentions, let us make it clear that it was primarily erected to the glory and for the worship of God.

Rev. Keith M. Jones M.A. (Oxon)