All Saints Church, Spetchley

All Saints’ Church stands beside Spetchley Park in Worcestershire, a redundant Anglican building now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church began in the 13th century, yet its oldest parts—the nave and chancel—date from the 14th. In 1614 Rowland Berkeley, a Worcester wool merchant, added the south chapel. The tower probably belongs to the 17th century, and the porch was added in the following one. A restoration in 1857 was carried out by Henry Rowe, and since 1987 the church has been looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust. The exterior is built of grey lias stone with red sandstone dressings and tiled roofs. The plan includes a nave, a narrower chancel, and a south chapel, with a tower at the west end embraced by the nave. The porch is timber-framed on a small brick wall, and above it is a two-light west window. The tower rises in two stages above the nave roof, with small louvred bell openings and an embattled parapet. Inside, plastered barrel roofs cover the nave and chancel, and the font has a round bowl on a round stem. The interior is best known for its monuments. A tomb chest behind railings in the chancel’s bay window was intended for John Slade, who died in 1597. A large monument to Sir Rowland Berkeley and his wife Katherine occupies the space between chancel and chapel. It may have been designed by Samuel Baldwin and features two effigies under a coffered arch carried on fluted Ionic columns. Within the chapel lies the tomb chest of Sir Robert Berkeley, who died in 1656, and on the wall is a monument to Thomas and Anne Berkeley from 1693, attributed to James Hardy. A Baroque monument by Grinling Gibbons commemorates Robert Berkeley who died in 1694, and another wall monument by W. Stephens and Company remembers a Robert Berkeley who died in 1804. The stained glass, made by Hardman & Co, depicts scenes such as the Resurrection and the Annunciation.