All Saints, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire

Description

The church of All-Saints, formerly collegiate, is a spacious cruciform embattled structure, principally of the Early English period, and consisting of chancel with an ancient vestry on the north, nave, aisles, transepts, north, south and west porches, and a central tower with pinnacles and octagonal spire containing 8 bells: the windows, twelve of which are stained, are nearly all Perpendicular, and some have very good tracery: the chancel retains its stalls, and there is some good screen work and an eagle lectern of wood, with traces of colour, and a chain for a padlock attached: the western door is ornamented with wrought ironwork, the work of John de Leighton: the font, an early example, has a circular bulging basin, on a short round columnar base, surrounded by four shafts, the capitals of which are level with the rim of the basin: there are monuments to William Jackman, gent. 1592; Francis Willis, gent. 1646, and his wife Margaret (Saunders), and Catherine, wife of Richard Whitlock, gent. 1649: the church was thoroughly restored in 1842 and 1852, and again in 1885-6, at a cost of over £3,000, and was re-opened July 10th, 1886: in 1893 the spire was re-pointed, the vane repaired and a new lightning conductor erected: in 1906 a new organ was erected at a cost of £1,070, a choir vestry built and the reredos (begun in 1900) completed by Mrs. Swire, of Leighton House, under the direction of Mr. G. F. Bodley R.A.

Church Records

The parish register dates from the year 1562, and includes the earlier registers of Billington, Eggington, Heath and Reach, and some part of Stanbridge.