"The church of ALL HALLOWS consists of chancel 41 ft. 2 in. by 18 ft. 6 in., with organ-chamber (former vestry) on the north side, clearstoried nave of three bays 51 ft. 8 in. by 17 ft. 10 in., north and south aisles 8 ft. 3 in. wide, south porch and west tower 11 ft. by 12 ft., all these measurements being internal. The tower is surmounted by a spire. The width across nave and aisles is 39 ft. 6 in.
The building is of rubble, with straight parapets and slated roofs, except that of the porch, which is leaded. The walls are plastered internally. There was an extensive restoration of the fabric in 1874–5, when many of the windows were wholly renewed, new roofs erected, and the present small circular clearstory windows inserted. The oldest parts of the building are the responds of the chancel arch and the south doorway, which date from the first half of the 12th century, and formed part of a church consisting of an aisleless nave which covered the space occupied by the two eastern bays of the present nave, and a short chancel. To this early building a north aisle was added c. 1180–90, the wall being pierced by an arcade of two bays, and early in the 13th century a south aisle of three bays was thrown out, increasing the nave to its present length, and the north arcade and aisle were extended a bay westward, the old respond being re-used and a new pillar and arch similar to those on the south side erected. The old south doorway was at the same time moved outward to its present position. Later in the 13th century the chancel was rebuilt on its present plan, and about 1280–1300 the tower and spire were added. The east window of the south aisle is also of this latter period, and other windows, afterwards altered, appear then to have been inserted in the aisles. The porch was probably first built late in the 14th century. Evidence is wanting of the existence of a clearstory before the 17th century, but sometime after 1660 the roof of the nave was removed and one of lower pitch substituted, the aisle walls heightened, and a clearstory made. The tracery is said to have been removed at this time from most of the aisle windows, converting them to plain square-headed openings. )
The lofty chancel arch is of a depressed semicircular form, and is probably contemporary with the older part of the north arcade. It is of two moulded orders, with large half-round soffit moulding, and has a hood-mould on the side towards the nave only. The 12th-century responds have been much restored and some of the carving is new or wholly recut, but they still retain a great deal of very beautiful original work. The inner order of the arch rests on halfround columns, and the outer order on the angle shafts, facing east and west, all with richly carved capitals and moulded bases on high square chamfered plinths. The enriched abaci are carried through to the adjoining walls on the nave side and for a short distance facing the chancel, the carving consisting chiefly of scrolls and hatching. The capitals have early volutes and a variety of sculptured ornament.
The south doorway has a segmental arch with billet hood-mould and two outer orders with edgerolls, on jambshafts with carved capitals and moulded bases; the plain chamfered inner order is continued to the ground. The capitals have small volutes and abaci enriched with studs, scrolls and fret ornament.
The chancel is very much restored, but preserves all its 13th-century features. It is divided externally into two bays by buttresses, and there are pairs of buttresses at the angles, all of two stages with triangular head at each slope. Externally there is a keelshaped string at sill level, the corresponding string inside being moulded. In the south wall is a plain chamfered doorway with moulded imposts and hood with head-stops. The windows are of one type, consisting of grouped lancet lights with wide chamfered mullions under a single pointed arch, but they differ slightly in detail. The east window is of three graded lights, and its hollow-chamfered containing arch springs from twice-banded jambshafts with foliated capitals and moulded bases. The east wall is faced with alternate courses of ironstone and freestone. The lateral windows, two in the east bay on each side, and one in the west bay on the south side, are of two lights, under an arch with double chamfered jambs, the spandrels being left plain, except in the easternmost window on the south side, which has a sunk quatrefoil. The hoods of the east and south-west windows have head-stops, but on the south side the others are continued along the wall. Internally all the chancel windows have shafted jambs and mullions and hood-moulds with head-stops. Except in the east window, where the capitals are foliated, the shafts have moulded capitals and bases. The piscina and triple sedilia form a single architectural composition consisting of four moulded trefoil arches, springing from detached shafts and shafted jambs with moulded bases and moulded and foliated capitals. The sedilia are stepped, and the stops of the hood-moulds are carved with heads and foliage; the piscina occupies the easternmost recess and has an octofoil fluted bowl. At the east end of the north wall is a pointed aumbry, and there are two trefoiled aumbries in the east wall, north and south of the altar. At its west end the north wall is open to the organ-chamber by a modern arch. A tall roundheaded opening over the chancel arch was formerly square-headed and had an oak lintel. An alabaster reredos was erected in 1889.
The nave arcades have semicircular arches of two orders, on cylindrical pillars and half-round responds. The two late 12th-century arches of the north arcade are moulded, with hoods on the side towards the nave, and the soffits have a hollow between two round mouldings; towards the aisle the outer order is chamfered. The pillar and responds have circular moulded bases, with octagonal lower member, on square plinths and the capitals have inverted volutes and divided abaci. In the south arcade both orders of the arches have edge-rolls, and there are hoods on the nave side; the pillars and west respond have circular moulded capitals and bases, the former enriched with nail-head and the latter on square plinths. The contemporary west arch and pillar of the north arcade are of the same character. At the east end of the south arcade the arch springs from a chamfered impost and square respond in which is a round-headed rebated recess or aumbry, and in the aisle adjoining, below the east window, is a tall square-headed recess without rebate. The window is of three tall trefoiled lights with cusped intersecting tracery, and in the usual position in the south wall is an original round-headed piscina with plain circular bowl. About 2 ft. further west there is a later moulded piscina with square trough and elaborate ogee cinquefoiled head, the canopy of which has been cut away, probably inserted late in the 14th century, when the chapel may have been remodelled. The west window of the south aisle is a trefoil-headed lancet with wide internal splay and hood with notch-stops, but the corresponding window in the north aisle is a pointed opening of two uncusped lights with quatrefoil in the head. The jambs of a former north doorway are visible below the present north-west window of the aisle. The square-headed lateral windows of both aisles are modern, of three and four lights, with tracery copied from that of the east window of the south aisle. The porch has a coped gable, pointed continuous moulded outer doorway and small flanking panelled buttresses; the side windows are blocked.
In the south wall of the south aisle are two wide pointed tomb recesses, with arches of three chamfered orders and hood-moulds, in the easternmost of which a mutilated 13th-century effigy was placed at the restoration.
The tower is of three stages, marked by strings, and has a moulded plinth and pairs of buttresses at the angles reaching to the top of the second stage, above which they are continued as flat buttresses about two-thirds of the height of the bell-chamber. There is no vice. The pointed west window is of two uncusped lights with a quatrefoiled circle in the head, and in the middle stage, north and south, are small circular windows from which the cusping has been removed. The pointed bell-chamber windows are of two lights with circle in the head, but they differ somewhat in design, those north and south having jamb and mid-shafts with foliated capitals and moulded bases, the lights being trefoiled on the south side and plain lancets on the north. On the west side the windows have hollow chamfered jambs, the outer hollow being continued to form the inclosing arch, and the circle in the head is blocked; the east window is of similar type, but restored, and with a quatrefoil in the head. Internally the tower opens into the nave by a pointed arch of three hollow chamfered orders, the two outer continuous, the innermost on triple clustered shafts with moulded capitals and bases; the hood-mould has head-stops, one of which is that of a king. The spire rises directly from the tower by a series of weatherings, above which it becomes octagonal, with short broaches. There are three tiers of gabled spire-lights in the cardinal faces, each of two openings.
The font and pulpit are modern. The old font had an octagonal bowl, each face carved with a plain cross, but it was discarded and sawn up at the restoration, and its eight sides, stem, and four legs now form the back and supports of a stone seat at the west end of the south aisle.
Wright in 1684 mentions an ancient monument without any epitaph in an arch in the south wall of the body of the church on which were 'two coats of arms cut in the stone uncoloured.' Of this monument only the two shields remain, built into the wall of the south aisle near the doorway. In the chancel is a tablet to the Hon. John Monckton of Fineshade Abbey (d. 1830) and other members of the Monckton family, and in the north aisle a memorial to seven men of the parish killed in the war of 1914–19.
There are said to have been numerous remains of wall paintings before the restoration, but they were 'too dilapidated to be preserved.' There was a St. Christopher on the north wall opposite the entrance. In the porch is an old iron-bound oak chest.
There are five bells in the tower: the first by Henry Bagley of Chacombe, 1684, the second and fourth dated 1597, the third by Richard Benetlye of Leicester (c. 1585), and the tenor by Tobie Norris (II) of Stamford, 1669. The bells were rehung in a metal frame in 1914.
The silver plate consists of a cup and cover paten of 1570–71. There are also a pewter flagon dated 1670 and a pewter plate.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) all entries 1538–53, 1561–1678; (ii) burials 1678–1724; (iii) baptisms 1680–1757, marriages 1683–1747; (iv) burials 1725–1812; (v) marriages 1748–76; (vi) baptisms 1758–1806; (vii) marriages 1777–1812; (viii) baptisms 1807–1812.
Built into the wall of the organ-chamber are portions of three coffin lids and another mediæval fragment."
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