All Saints Church, Idmiston

All Saints Church stands in the quiet village of Idmiston, Wiltshire, on ground once used for farming. Built mostly of flint with limestone bands, it shows layers of change from the 12th to the 19th century. The lower part of the tower is the oldest piece, while the aisles were widened in the 13th century to wrap around it. In the 15th century a two-storey porch was added to the north side and the nave gained a clerestory with parapets and gargoyles. The wooden belfry replaced a stone steeple taken down in 1668. The church is known for work by John Loughborough Pearson between 1865 and 1867. During repairs part of the tower fell, so the upper sections were rebuilt higher with a shingled pyramid roof. The south door was blocked and turned into a window, and the chancel’s north wall was rebuilt. New stained glass now fills the east and west windows, and the chancel roof was renewed in the 19th century. Inside, the low-pitched nave and aisle roofs carry carved bosses and corbels of Somerset type. The octagonal font is Purbeck marble from the 13th century, while the pulpit, altar rail and pews date from the 1800s. Four bells hang in the tower, two from the 17th century and one from the 18th, though none can be rung today. The churchyard holds 18th-century Bowle tombs and a kneeling figure in a niche marking Giles Rowbach, lord of the manor in 1633.