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Monument Types

• CHURCH (Early Medieval to Modern - 1101 AD to 2050 AD)

Summary

The church has Norman features in the nave, north arcade and an arch. C13th chancel and south arcade. C13th-C14th arch south of chancel. C16th part of the north aisle. Externally perpendicular. Major restoration was carried out in 1858.

Additional Information

Listed building description:
Parish Church. Origins in C12, though externally much is of C15, and it was restored in 1858 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Coursed ironstone rubble with limestone dressings. Leaded roofs, though plain tiles to chancel. West tower and spire, nave with two aisles and low clerestory, chancel and two flanking chapels.
C15 tower of 3 stages with pilaster buttresses at angles and paired lights with transoms to bell chamber. Embattled parapet with large grotesque gargoyles clutching the angles. Recessed spire with twin tiers of lucarnes. Buttressed south aisle with possibly C18 south porch with round-headed arch and coped gable: the inner door has a heavy ogee arch beneath an outer hood mould and is probably C16. Windows are Perpendicular: grouped, round-headed lights set beneath square hood moulds. South chancel chapel and chancel are C13 - C14, though the 3-light chancel east window is a Victorian restoration in the Decorated style. Buttressed north aisle and chapel with Perpendicular windows and Victorian half-timbered porch: the inner door is Victorian but its hood mould appears to be medieval. Limestone parapet to both aisles.
Low and dark interior with tall, double chamfered west tower arch of the late C13 set in a squared embrasure. Nave of 5 bays. The north arcade is late C12: cylindrical shafts have trumpet scalloped capitals and one of stiff leaf, with a wide splay up to the square abaci. The south arcade is slightly later, early C13, with clustered cylindrical shafts and double chamfered arches, still round-headed. Outer hood moulds with corbel heads. The low clerestory has paired lights. Victorian nave roof with cusped braces to tie beam and traceried panels between posts above it. Late C13 chancel arch, steep and double chamfered, and round-headed arches to north and south chapels. Chancel roof is vaulted in wood, with ribs forming square panels, and painted, part of a complete scheme of decoration carried out by Sir G.G. Scott: the walls are treated in broad decorative bands with stencilled flowers in lower section, then a deep frieze; mock ashlaring and angels and quatrefoil medallions, and above these a row of arcading. Stencilled flowers also adorn the voussoirs of the chapel arches and over the east window is a full scale painting of Christ in Majesty. The tower space is also painted, the decorative scheme continues through the richly tiled floors and the furnishings, including the tall wood font canopy, the marbled pulpit, low marble chancel screen and the pews.
The north chancel chapel takes up part of the north arcade and contains C16 and C17 tombs. The older of the two, contains two recumbent effigies, probably Elizabethan or Jacobean, propped on their elbows, with the male figure above the female, both framed an aedicule on a high predella, all of alabaster, richly decorated with strapwork etc. On the predella there are the figures of children, 4 girls in low relief stiffly kneeling. No inscription, but from the coat of arms, the tomb is probably for George Chambre and his wife, of Hothorpe. A smaller tomb is mounted on the south wall in memory of George Bathurst and his wife Elizabeth: she bore him 17 children, who are all depicted in low relief in the traditional manner, beneath two busts in oval niches of the parents. There is also a painted organ by Snetzler, 1754. Stairs and doorway to rood loft visible. In the south chapel is a large monument of 1772 to G. Davies. It is a large piece with angled broken pediment surrounding an urn on a pedestal with a fulsome epitaph. Tomb in south aisle to the Reverend Slaughter Clark and Rachel, his wife, by Hayward, of 1772. Almost life size marble figures, he stands while she reclines on an urn.
Stained glass: in the north aisle and north chapel, several windows of c.1870-90 in a Renaissance style, the use of a lot of yellow in the classical architectural settings to figures of saints. The chancel east window of 1858 is in a medieval style as are the saints in the clerestory windows, the west tower window and the south chapel, which is of 1863. There is more Renaissance style glass in the south aisle, dated 1886 and 1889. C12 font beneath Victorian cover, a simple round basin with a moulded rim.

Project Gargoyle survey work in 2011 recorded simple human heads on the south aisle arcade dating to the 13th century; some of the label stops on the exterior of the windows of the south aisle are presumably also early 13th century, although others are from the 1858 restoration by Sir George Gilbert Scott. Other external carvings are either from the 15th century or the 1858 restoration. The excellent grotesques clutching the corners of the 15th century tower are almost certainly original and not restorations.

<1> Pevsner N, 1984, The Buildings of England Leicestershire and Rutland, p404 (Bibliographic reference). SLE4.

"ALL SAINTS. The story starts inside. A fragment of Norman string course at the W end of the nave, visible from the N aisle, indicates an aisleless building. Next the late Norman N arcade of five bays with unmoulded arches resting on short circular piers with square abaci, and substantial, water-holding bases. Capitals with various motifs including trumpet fluting and upright leaves. On one, stiff-leaf is achieved. Norman also the unmoulded arch to a now-Perpendicular N chapel. Perhaps C13 the chancel S wall of rubble, a common early local material because of the lack of good stone. C13 S arcade, four bays, short quatrefoil piers, but still round, though now double-chamfered arches. Arch from chancel to S chapel late C13 to early C14. The chancel arch covers part of the E bay of the S arcade, probably indicating an abandoned attempt to move the nave wall further E after the building of the S arcade.
"Externally nearly everything is Perpendicular. The N chapel, which embraces part of the N aisle, is probably early C16. The N aisle has Perpendicular detail but its narrowness no doubt continues the width of the small Norman aisle. Perpendicular W tower with recessed spire. Perpendicular clerestory except for an unusual circular NE light. S chancel E wall and window, high roof-pitch to the chancel, and fittings. Good PULPIT of alabaster with marble inlay and metalwork in the lectern and candleholders on the stalls. Sadly neglected mural decorations in the chancel and base of the tower. These are almost certainly by the Rev FH Sutton. Minor roof decoration in the S chapel and the tower by CJ Lea of Lutterworth. - ORGAN. By Snetzler, 1754. Case with C19 decoration (see especially the angles inside the folding doors) said to be by the Rev FH Sutton d.1863 (cf. Ketton, Rutland). - SCREEN. Perpendicular fragments built into the fronts of the nave benches. - FONT COVER. Splendid tall cover with doors by GF Bodley, 1893. Masses of pinnacles, crockets, and buttresses. - TILES in the sanctuary 1858 by Minton, designed by Lord Alwyne Compton. - STAINED GLASS. E by Clayton & Bell, 1858. - N chapel NW, with Renaissance detail, by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, 1874 (rather worn).
"MONUMENTS. Late Elizabethan couple (N chapel); no inscription. They lie stiffly on their sides, their cheeks propped by hand and elbow. He is placed above and a little behind her. - George Bathurst d.1656 and wife (N chapel). Two frontal busts in oval niches, a typical motif of the mid C17. The children, however, still stiffly kneeling in the predella, in the Elizabethan and Jacobean fashion. - Griffith Davies d.1722 (S chapel). Tall, plain, with a bowed pediment broken by an urn and the base on which it stands. - The Rev Slaughter Clark, 1772 by R Hayward. He stands somewhat pompously in his flowing cassock; his wife sits to his right by an urn."

<2> Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, 1945, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, Volume 22, Vol 22 (1941/2), p118-123 (Journal). SLE4982.

<3> 1964, A History of the County of Leicestershire: Volume 5: Gartree Hundred (Victoria History of the Counties of England), p318 (Bibliographic reference). SLE429.

Sources

Associated Finds

None recorded

Designations

• Listed Building (I) 1188196: CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS
• Conservation Area: Theddingworth

Associated Images

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