All Saints Church, Bolton

All Saints Church, Bolton
All Saints Church, Bolton, from the southeast All Saints Church, Bolton, from the southeast
All Saints Church, Bolton Location in Cumbria
OS grid reference	NY 639 234
Location	Bolton, Cumbria
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	All Saints, Bolton
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	6 February 1968
Architectural type	Church
Style	Norman, Gothic
Specifications
Materials	Stone, slate roofs
Administration
Parish	Bolton
Deanery	Appleby
Archdeaconry	Carlisle
Diocese	Carlisle
Province	York
Clergy
Priest(s)	Revd Stewart Fyfe
Laity
Reader(s)	David Jones

All Saints Church is in the village of Bolton, Cumbria, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Appleby, the archdeaconry of Carlisle, and the diocese of Carlisle. Its benefice is united with those of five local churches to form The Leith-Lyvennet Group of Parishes. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.

History

All Saints dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, with later alterations. It was restored in 1848.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is long and narrow, constructed in stone with slate roofs. It has a simple plan consisting of a nave and a chancel with a south porch. On the west gable is a bellcote with a saddleback roof. Its Norman features include the south and north doorways (the north is blocked), and slit windows towards the east end of the north and south walls of the chancel. Along the south wall of the nave are three 18th-century round-headed windows. In the south wall of the chancel are, in addition to the slit window, a 14th/15th-century square headed window, and two lancet windows, one of which has been shortened to accommodate a 17th-century square-headed doorway. The east window has three lights. The main south doorway in the porch has a semicircular head, carved capitals, and a hoodmould decorated with rosettes. Above the north doorway are two 12th-century carved stones, one depicting two jousting knights, the other with an illegible inscription. Inset in the south wall to the west of the porch is upright female effigy that was probably originally a coffin lid.

Interior

Inside the church, the semicircular chancel arch, dating from the 17th century, contains 19th-century tracery. Above the chancel arch are the Royal arms of Queen Victoria. At the west end of the church is a gallery, and on the walls of the church are benefactors' boards. On the wall adjacent to the door is a poor box dated 1623. The font consists of a round bowl on a square pedestal, with a cover dated 1687. The stained glass in the east window and in one of the windows in the south wall of the chancel is by Clayton and Bell.

External features

In the churchyard is a Grade II listed table tomb to members of the Bowness family with dates in the 18th century. Also in the churchyard is a stone sundial dated 1747 set on a medieval cross-base. It is also listed at Grade II.

See also

• Grade I listed churches in Cumbria

External links

• Photographs at Visit Cumbria