Nominal: 770 Hz Weight: 1112 lbs Diameter: 39.75" Bell 1 of 5
Founded by Hugh I Watts 1610
Dove Bell ID: 6996 Tower ID: 13499 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: eighth Cracked: No
Dean: All Hallows
Overview
Grid reference: TL 46 676
The church is of high archaeological, architectural and historical significance, listed Grade I. It is of mainly fourteenth and fifteenth-century construction, and escaped heavy-handed Victorian restoration. The building is notable for the quality and extent of its carpentry and other medieval and later furnishings of note. Medieval fabric of high significance includes carved stonework (including a fine tomb recess in the north aisle), fine timber roofs (the nave and aisles in particular) and screens in the chancel arch and in front of the side chapels. The survival of a largely complete set of late-medieval benches in the nave and aisles is also highly unusual. The village of Dean is divided into two parts, Upper Dean and Lower (or Nether) Dean. Upper Dean is the larger, and stands on higher ground near a tributary of the River Ivel. The church of All Hallows (sometimes referred to as All Saints) lies within a large churchyard, its chancel end facing towards the High Street, lined mainly with detached houses occupying large plots, although a primary school lies opposite the church. The boundary to the High Street has a boarded fence, with a granite war memorial in the form of a Celtic cross at the northwest corner of the churchyard. The village is not a designated conservation area, but has a tranquil and rural character, with some period properties, including one listed building, a thatched cottage on the other side of the narrow Church Lane near the war memorial. The churchyard is well tended, with a number of table tombs as well as more recent burials. There is a belt of trees along the western churchyard boundary, and an avenue of beech trees lining the approach to the south porch from the High Street. All Hallows shelters several bat species and the church community struggles with cleaning. The church was part of the Bats in Churches proejct 2018-23. The Bedfordshire Bat Group has conducted five daytime inspections of the church since 1988 (1988, 2004, 2009, 2012, and 2019). Findings include pipistrelle Pipistrellus sp. and brown long-eared bat Plecotus auritus bat droppings at every visit, with probable Natterer’s bat Myotis nattereri droppings found in 2004, 2009, and 2019 and potential barbastelle droppings in 2009. A 2021 bat survey found mainly pipistrelles and a couple of brown long-eared bats.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Footprint of Church buildings: 348 m²
Exterior Description
The present church is an accretive structure of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (see plan at figure 1). The chancel arch dates from the thirteenth century, but the church appears otherwise to be a later remodelling and rebuilding. The aisles and west tower date from the fourteenth century, but the aisles were rebuilt, a south porch added and a clerestorey and new roof added over a raised nave arcade in the fifteenth century. North and south chancel chapels were also added about this time, and the chancel refenestrated. By the end of the Middle Ages the church had acquired, more or less, its present external form. Figure 2: The church from the south in c.1820 (Beds Community Archives website) In the seventeenth century there was a Laudian rearrangement with a new Communion table and rails. In the eighteenth century, lead rainwater hoppers dated 1783 on the south side of the church suggest a roof overhaul at that time. The early nineteenth century appearance of the church is shown at figure 2. The spire was repaired in 1843 and stained glass windows placed in the chancel in 1854 and 1857, when the tile floor of the chancel may also have been installed. Beyond this (apart from the stripping of the internal plaster, so widespread at that time) the building escaped Victorian overrestoration. Indeed, it appears to have passed through a period of neglect, having been described by Archdeacon Frederick Bathurst in 1873 as in ‘a wretched state’ and in 1888 as ‘still in bad repair’. The Victoria County History for Bedfordshire (1912) recorded that ‘at the present day for want of money the whole is slowly falling to decay, the walls bare of plaster and green with damp from leaking roofs, and the beautiful carvings of the roofs threatening to fall. The mediaeval seats remain, in great part much in need of repair, and the floors are broken and uneven, patched with rough stone, in places showing the ground beneath’. However repairs to the chancel, north aisle and north chapel were put in hand in that year, and from 1916 a more comprehensive, but gradual (still incomplete in 1925) programme of repairs took place under the direction of Sidney Inskip Ladds, architect of Huntingdon and Ely Diocesan Surveyor. The church was listed in 1964, and today is listed Grade I. It forms part of the Stodden Churches group of parishes, named after the ancient Hundred of that name.
The church is built of coursed limestone rubble, with ashlar dressings. On plan (figure 1) it consists of a west tower, nave, north and south aisles, south porch, chancel and north and south chancel chapels. As well as the main south entrance there is a door in the north aisle and a small priest’s door with ogee head on the south side of the chancel. The VCH refers to a later door under the west tower window but evidence for this has been lost, probably in the c.1916 restoration. The fourteenth century west tower is of three stages with attached buttresses and a two-light trefoiled window to the lower stage (west face) with clock over, a short intermediate stage, and trefoiled two-light windows to the belfry stage. Above a plain parapet with frieze of grotesque heads and central gargoyles is an octagonal spire with lucarnes. The aisles, nave clerestory, south porch and north and south chapels were remodelled or added in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; all have embattled parapets, while the earlier chancel has a solid plain parapet. The most elaborate windows are those to the east windows of the side chapels (and the southeast window in the south chapel), which are of three lights with traceried ogee heads. The remaining windows are more Perp (fifteenthcentury) in character, including those in the chancel. Near the south porch are two eighteenthcentury lead hoppers with square downpipes, each hopper with a griffin over a crown and one inscribed IF 1783.
Interior
Interior Description
A studded oak door with broad strap hinges and inset ogee-headed wicket leads into the interior of the church. Here the walls have been stripped of their original plaster. The floors are mainly of flagstones, with inset ledger slabs, the pews raised on wooden platforms. The nave arcade is of four bays, with fourteenth-century bases and later octagonal piers, the arcade probably raised when the clerestorey was added in the fifteenth century. At the west end, the mouldings of the tower arch die into the wall. Evidence for the earlier steeplypitched fourteenth-century roof can be seen on the eastern tower face; the plate is below the apex level of the present nave arcade. The clerestorey windows are of three cinquefoiled lights, with a fine fifteenth-century timber roof above. This has cambered tie beams with beautiful central bosses, and braces with carved spandrels springing from the canopied heads of former niches (the lower parts lost). Details include a band of openwork carving below the wall plates, a line of angels around the east bay and blank shields around the west bay. The eastern bay was originally ceiled and is slightly plainer; other bays have elaborate bosses of foliage, and angels bearing instruments of the Passion or musical instruments (some angels restored). The aisle roofs are similarly, though less elaborately detailed. The thirteenth century chancel arch has two chamfered orders with moulded octagonal capitals with nail head detail. The chancel was rebuilt in the fourteenth century and has a simpler roof, of three bays, with moulded tie-beams and braces springing from small halfcolumns. Moulded four-centred arches open onto the north and south chancel chapels, which have panelled ceilings. The north chapel arch contains the organ, and the area behind is a vestry/store. From here a squint affords a view towards the altar. The chancel was refenestrated in the fifteenth century, with windows of three trefoiled lights.
The church retains a good number of medieval and later furnishings and monuments of note. The main fittings and furnishings are, in roughly chronological order: Remains of holy water stoup and pedestal by south door, probably fourteenth century Fourteenth century octagonal font with quatrefoil panels, on octagonal base carved with leaves and flowers, in south aisle (modern oak cover, in memory of Horace Hodgkins) Arched piscine in the chancel and side chapels Cupboard on north chancel wall (modern door with brass strap hinges) Fourteenth century canopied tomb recess at the east end of the north aisle, with richly carved cusping, and a base with quatrefoils on the front and Purbeck marble slab with the remains of an inscription [PRI] ES FOR SA ALME DEU MER [CI], to Walter de Ireland, rector, d.1311 (some of the lettering is now ex situ, displayed in a case above, figure 3). Incorporates old carved graffiti. Elaborate medieval wooden rood screen and chapel screens, with crocketed labels to the arched openings (the gate to the rood screen is Jacobean) Fifteenth century wooden pulpit, with arched tracery panels A bench front alongside the pulpit incorporates tracery panels from a screen The nave and aisle pews are substantially medieval, with moulded tops and square buttressed ends. Some old pew fronts have been reused in the creation of a kitchen area at the west end of the south aisle In the south chapel, a raised tomb chest with a brass to Thomas Parker, rector, d.1501, shown vested for Mass, with indent for Trinity brass Seventeenth century communion rails and communion table Seventeenth century wall monuments in the north and south chapels, notably a Baroque marble monument to John Neale (d.1680) in the south chapel, attributed to Edward Stanton (O’Brien/Pevsner) and one to Thomas Bourdy, rector of Shelton (d.1691) in the north chapel (largely obscured by the organ) Jacobean alms chest by main entrance, baluster form with heavy iron strapping A fine oak chest in the north chapel Timber screen to tower arch, possibly seventeenth century Seventeenth and eighteenth-century panelling in tower area, and an old ladder In the south aisle, a brass to Richard Hooke, rector (d.1690) and his wife Anne (d.1669) A painted hatchment/memorial to Joseph Neale (d.1710), son of John Neale, recording his endowment of a charity school A number of eighteenth century brass plates on the rear of the front pew, with inscriptions to members of the Boswell family A number of eighteenth-century slate ledger slabs in the circulation alleys of the nave and aisles Encaustic tile floor in the chancel, probably 1850s A Jacobean-style wooden lectern in the chancel A Victorian bier at the west end of the north aisle Two diamond-shaped late-nineteenth century white marble wall monuments in south aisle (Evans and Dalton) A brass eagle lectern, in memory of Philip Templer Furneaux, killed at Ypres in 1914 Board recording 1916 ICBS grant of £25 towards repairs Organ by R. Rose & Co. of Bedford, installed in 1936 (renovated 1988). According to the BIOS Register it was brought here from Melchbourne House, Bedfordshire. (Not inspected): The VCH lists four bells: the treble by Hugh Watts of Leicester, 1603; the second, cast in London in the late fifteenth century, the third by Tobias Norris of Stamford, 1671, and the tenor an alphabet bell cast by Hugh Watts, 1610. The bells were rehung and a fifth added in 1956. The fifteenth century bell frame is said to survive in situ. The seventeenth century clock was made by the village blacksmith (information from parish). Stained glass In the west window of the south aisle, a medieval figure of a kneeling priest In the east window of the south chapel, a medieval shield Three-light east window with quatrefoiled panels, by Thomas Willement, in memory of Richard Verity (d.1857) Three-light window in south chapel with modern figure of St Francis and incorporating medieval figures, by Goddard & Gibbs, in memory of Thomas Patrick Hayes (d.1962)
Bells
Nominal: 1155 Hz Weight: 482 lbs Diameter: 28" Bell 2 of 5
Founded by John Taylor & Co 1956
Dove Bell ID: 43724 Tower ID: 13499 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1027 Hz Weight: 656 lbs Diameter: 32.13" Bell 3 of 5
Founded by Hugh I Watts 1603
Dove Bell ID: 43725 Tower ID: 13499 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Nominal: 954 Hz Weight: 819 lbs Diameter: 34.38" Bell 4 of 5
Founded by Richard Mellours
Dove Bell ID: 43726 Tower ID: 13499 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: eighth Cracked: No
Nominal: 860 Hz Weight: 821 lbs Diameter: 35.75" Bell 5 of 5
Founded by Tobias III Norris 1675
Dove Bell ID: 43727 Tower ID: 13499 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Churchyard
Grid reference: TL 46 676
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Quinquennial Inspections
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