All Saints Church, Leicester

All Saints' Church, Leicester
All Saints' Church, Leicester
Style	Norman, Gothic
Closed	1986
Specifications
Materials	Stone and brick, slate roofs

All Saints' Church is a

Anglican church in High Cross Street, Leicester, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building,^[1] and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.^[2]

500m
550yds

All Saints' Church

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

assizes 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.^[3]

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 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.^[1] 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. ^[3] The church was declared redundant on 1 January 1983, and was vested in the Churches Conservation Trust on 8 July 1986.^[4]

Architecture

Exterior

The chancel of All Saints is constructed in brick, while the rest of the church in stone; the roofs are in

transomed bell openings with louvres. On the summit of the tower is an embattled parapet.^[1]

Interior

In the nave are six-bay

parquet flooring under the pews, and 20th-century concrete elsewhere. In the south aisle is a tomb recess and two piscinae. The font dates from the 13th century, and is richly carved. The polygonal pulpit 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.^[1]

Exterior features

In the churchyard is the table tomb of Gabriel Newton, a local politician and founder of the local Bluecoat School, who died in 1762.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Historic England, "Former Church of All Saints, Leicester (1074012)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 27 June 2013
^ ^a ^b All Saints' Church, Leicester, Leicestershire, Churches Conservation Trust, archived from the original on 5 July 2011, retrieved 29 March 2011
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Hollingshead, Liz (2003), All Saints' Church, Leicester: Notes for teachers, Churches Conservation Trust
^ Diocese of Leicester: All Schemes (PDF), Church Commissioners/Statistics, Church of England, 2011, p. 2, archived (PDF) from the original on 16 March 2012, retrieved 7 April 2011

[hg-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Historic England, "Former Church of All Saints, Leicester (1074012)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 27 June 2013

[cct-2] All Saints' Church, Leicester, Leicestershire, Churches Conservation Trust, archived from the original on 5 July 2011, retrieved 29 March 2011

[pdf-3] Hollingshead, Liz (2003), All Saints' Church, Leicester: Notes for teachers, Churches Conservation Trust

[4] Diocese of Leicester: All Schemes (PDF), Church Commissioners/Statistics, Church of England, 2011, p. 2, archived (PDF) from the original on 16 March 2012, retrieved 7 April 2011

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