Babworth All Saints

Official Listing Description

SK 68 SE

6/4

G.V.

BABWORTH

CHURCH LANE
(north side)

Church of All Saints

Grade I

Parish church. C15, C16, partially restored c.1860, restored 1878. Ashlar with slate roofs and single ashlar ridge crosses at the east end of the chancel and at the west and east ends of the north aisle. Butressed and set on a plinth with string course running over. All parapets are embattled apart from the west wall of the north aisle and the east chancel wall, guttering runs under. Tower, nave, north aisle, north vestry, chancel and south porch. The diagonally butressed tower of 2 stages with string course at the juncture has a restored arched 3-light west window with panel tracery and cusping. There is a hoodmould over and string course under. The bell chamber has 4 arched 2-light openings with cusping and hoodmoulds.There are small single fixed lights to the west and south sides with a clock face under the south bellfry opening. On the north and south sides are 2 gargoyles with single crocketed pinnacles at the angles of the parapet. The restored west window of the north aisle is arched with 3 lights, having panel and reticulated tracery with cusping and hoodmould over. The diagonally butressed north aisle has 4 windows all under flat heads, with 3 arched lights to all but the eastern most one which has 5 lights. Under the 2nd window in from the east is a narrow C16 arched priest's doorway with wooden door. The parapet has 4 crocketed pinnacles. The north wall of the vestry has a single window under a flat head with 3 arched lights, there is a single crocketed pinnacle. The east vestry wall has a similar window. The diagonally butressed chancel has a 5-light arched window with panel and reticulated tracery and cusping. There are single crocketed pinnacles at the 2 corners. The south wall has 6 windows under flat heads, each with 3 arched lights. Under the window 2nd from the east is a narrow C16 arched priest's doorway with wooden door. There are 4 crocketed pinnacles. The diagonally butressed south porch with moulded arched entrance has C20 ½ glazed double doors with C20 iron lamp over. The interior porch roof has stone transverse arches supported on stone corbels. The interior doorway is arched and has a wooden door. A 3 bay arcade separates nave and aisle, having octagonal columns, moulded capitals and chamfered arches. Single carved grotesque heads replace responds. The chamfered tower arch supported on corbels has a C19 gallery under. The chamfered chancel/north aisle arch is supported on corbels, there is an arched doorway leading to the vestry. In the south wall of the chancel is a piscina with chamfered surround. In the north aisle, south wall, is a small arched niche through to the nave. The font, pulpit and lectern are Cl9. There are several decorated wall tablets. That to Catherine and Lidley Simpson, 1773, has a small coloured and decorated shield on the apron and is surmounted by a decorated urn. William Simpson and his wife Frances, 1768, this has a sarcophagus with decorative scrolls over, supporting an obelisk bearing the inscription and a carved, coloured and decorated shield. The tablet to John Simpson and family, 1727, is topped with an open segmental pediment containing a blank shield which is decorated around its outside edges and flanked by single cherubs heads with a small urn over. There is a sarcophagus set on to the ground of the monument to Arthur Bridgeman Simpson, 1827. That to Revd John Simpson, 1784, consists of a long horizontal rectangular tablet, topped by a decorated urn. This is signed by Waterworth. To Honble Anna Maria Vane, 1759, is an inscribed tablet under an arched head, with foliated scrolls along either side. The congregation became Separatist on July 11 1586 when Rev Richard Clyfton became Minister, he was deprived of his living in 1604. William Brewster and William Bradford worshipped here until the Separatist Church was formed at Scrooby in 1606 when they and Clyfton moved there. Clyfton escaped to Amsterdam in 1608 and died there 20th May 1616. A street in New Plymouth Massachusetts is named after him.