All Saints' Church, Leicester
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All Saints' Church is a redundant
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
church in High Cross Street,
Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...
, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.


History

Although it is situated away from the present city centre, at the time the church was built it was at the heart of the city. In the Domesday Book it is recorded that Leicester had six churches, and it is assumed that All Saints was one of these. In 1143 it was given to Leicester Abbey. The church was enlarged in about 1300 when aisles were added. During the following century the tower and the nave were raised and new aisle roofs were built. The church was used for secular as well as sacred purposes. In 1418 Margery Kempe was tried for Lollardy (for being a follower of John Wycliffe) in the church. In 1583, during outbreaks of the
plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...
, the
assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...
were held in the church. Later the local population and businesses in the city moved elsewhere in the city, and All Saints parish combined with other local parishes. In the early 19th century the fabric of the church was deteriorating, and in 1829 the chancel was demolished and rebuilt. The local architect Henry Goddard added new seating and extended the gallery in 1843, and in 1855–56 he
restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian music musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004 by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard ...
the roofs. In 1874–76 Joseph Goddard and Alfred Paget undertook a restoration involving the addition of new windows, building a new nave roof, and removing the gallery. The tower was restored by William Basset-Smith in 1894–95. A new road system was built in the city in the 1960s which isolated the church. The chancel was divided from the rest of the church to form a meeting room, but numbers attending the church continued to decline. It closed in 1982 and was then used as a store. In 2020 the church had a fire. The church was declared redundant on 1 January 1983, and was
vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...
in the Churches Conservation Trust on 8 July 1986.


Architecture


Exterior

The chancel of All Saints is constructed in brick, while the rest of the church in stone; the roofs are in
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
. Its plan consists of a six-
bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...
nave with a
clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
and north and south aisles, a four-bay chancel with a roof at a lower level, and a northeast tower. There are three parallel roofs, the roof over the nave being higher than those over the aisles. The west doorway is
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...
in style, and the rest of the church is in geometrical and Decorated styles. The west front contains a round-arched doorway, decorated with chevrons, a five-light window at the end of the nave, and four-light windows at the ends of the aisles. Along the walls of the aisles are buttresses, and along their tops are plain parapets. There are three-light windows along the aisles and the clerestories. In the westernmost bay of both the south and north aisles are doorways. There is a clock and an early 17th cent gabled wooden bellcote above the south doorway with two mechanical figures and a 19th cent image of Father Time with the inscription “Tempus edax rerum”. Over the north doorway is a quatrefoil rose window. The east window has three lights, and is in Perpendicular style. The tower is in three stages. The lowest stage has 12th-century angle pilasters with an unusual semicircular cross-section, and a west doorway with a pointed arch dating from the 13th century. In the upper stages are diagonal buttresses. The top stage has two-light transomed bell openings with louvres. On the summit of the tower is an
embattled A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...
parapet.


Interior

In the nave are six-bay arcades carried by octagonal
piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
. The chancel arch is blocked. The nave is floored with a mixture of medieval tiles, grave slabs, parquet flooring under the pews, and 20th-century concrete elsewhere. In the south aisle is a tomb recess and two piscinae. The
font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...
dates from the 13th century, and is richly carved. The polygonal
pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...
dates from the 15th century, and stands on a 19th-century base. The clock over the south doorway dates from about 1620, and has faces on both the interior and the exterior of the church. Around the church are wall monuments. The west window of the tower contains medieval stained glass. The other stained glass dates from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and includes work by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and by Clayton and Bell. There is also a war memorial window by Morris & Co.


Exterior features

In the churchyard is the table tomb of
Gabriel Newton Gabriel Newton (1683–1762) was a leading figure in the English city of Leicester.
, a local politician and founder of the local Bluecoat School, who died in 1762.


See also

* List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in the English Midlands


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leicester, All Saints Church Grade I listed churches in Leicestershire Church of England church buildings in Leicestershire Church of England church buildings in Leicester English churches with Norman architecture English Gothic architecture in Leicestershire Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust