All Saints Church, Maidstone

All Saints Church stands in the centre of Maidstone, Kent, beside the River Medway. It is a large Perpendicular church built of ragstone with buttressed walls and a crenellated parapet. The tower on the south-west corner rises to 24 metres and once carried a spire lost to lightning in 1730. The nave has six bays with aisles and a clerestory, and the south aisle contains a chapel built for the Fraternity of Corpus Christi. The churchyard holds Grade II listed remains of the former College of All Saints and the Archbishop’s Palace tithe barn. The church was founded in 1395 by Archbishop William Courtenay and completed by Thomas Arundel by 1398. Richard II granted lands and income to support the college, which was valued at £208 when dissolved in 1546. After the college closed, the church became Maidstone’s parish church and later housed monuments to Courtenay, Lawrence Washington, John Davy and the Astley family. The choir stalls have medieval misericords and the roof was rebuilt in 1886 by John Loughborough Pearson, who also designed the screens and reredos. Inside, the early 17th-century font and the ten bells range from 266 kg to 1,635 kg. The 1899 clock strikes Westminster chimes and was refurbished in 2007. The churchyard contains the tomb of William Shipley, founder of the Royal Society of Arts, and the Grade II-listed Monckton War Memorial. The building is on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register and remains in active use with male and female choirs directed by Philip Horley and Lionel Marchant as organist.