All Saints Church, Evesham

All Saints Church stands in the middle of Evesham, Worcestershire, on the site of the old Benedictine abbey. Built in the 12th century by the monks, it served the town alongside St Lawrence’s Church. Today All Saints is the parish church, while St Lawrence’s has been closed since the 1970s. The church’s history is marked by changes in worship. After the Dissolution it became strongly Puritan, but in the 1870s Frederick Preedy restored it and shifted it to a high church tradition. In the 1970s Canon A. Webb led the decision to keep only All Saints, uniting the two parishes in 1978. Inside, a notable organ came from Ranelagh Gardens in Chelsea, where Mozart may have played it. Installed in 1805, it was enlarged in 1904 to mark the abbey’s founding and Queen Victoria’s reign. Later rebuilds added electronic controls, keeping the instrument central to the church’s life.