Bradbourne, Derbyshire

All Saints (parish church)

The church of All Saints is a building in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, with considerable remains of Saxon and Norman work, and consists of chancel, with organ chamber, clerestoried nave, south aisle, south porch, and a fine tower at the west end containing 6 bells, dating from 1708 to 1895, and a clock with Westminster chimes was placed in the tower in 1891 as a Jubilee memorial: the tower is a massive Norman structure, the lower stage being Saxon, and there is a turret staircase in the north-east angle; the south doorway has three orders of mouldings, one of beak-heads, and two others displaying nondescript animals; the parapet, set up about 1450, rests upon the original Norman corbel table; the north side shows the beginning of the Saxon nave, and Early English and Late Decorated features, indicating rebuilding and insertions: straight joints in the masonry prove the extent of the Norman nave: the south aisle is separated from the nave by an arcade of three arches: the south clerestory windows, and others in the south aisle, as well as the battlements of the nave, are Perpendicular: the stained east window has Decorated tracery, and there is a smaller stained window on the north side of the chancel; and in another window on the south side are remains of ancient glass, dating from about 1400 and exhibiting the arms of the family of Edensor the font is formed of a single large square block of stone, ornamented on the sides with circles inclosing quatrefoils: there are six mural monuments to the Buckstone family, dating from 1643 to 1902; in 1877 a vestry and organ chamber were added, the chancel furnished with oak choir desks and re-floored and a reredos erected at a cost of about £600; the church had previously: been completely restored in 1846, at a cost of £300, and was again restored in 1909 at a cost of £1,200: in 1893 an organ was provided at a cost of £300: there are 205 sittings: in the churchyard stands the lower portion of a fine and early cross, probably of the 8th century; the middle portion, split into two pieces, was long used as stile-posts; these display scriptural figures rudely carved, and interlaced foliage similar to that on the cross at Bakewell; in 1886 they were rescued from their ignoble position by A. Hartshorne esq, F.S.A. of Worthing, and placed in the church, together with an arm of the cross, which had been taken to Tissington Hall.