Church of All Saints

All Saints’ Church stands in the market town of Kirkbymoorside in North Yorkshire. The oldest stonework, on the chancel’s south wall, dates from the 12th century. The nave and arcades belong to the 13th century, while the aisles and porch were added in the 14th and altered in the 15th. The tower’s upper stages were rebuilt in 1802 and buttresses added in the 19th century. Between 1873 and 1875 George Gilbert Scott restored the church, rebuilt the chancel and added the north chapel and vestry. In 1955 the building was recognised as a Grade I listed structure. The church is built of limestone and sandstone under stone-slate roofs. It contains a nave with clerestory, north and south aisles, a south porch and a chancel with a north Lady Chapel and south vestry. The west tower rises in three stages with diagonal buttresses, string courses and an embattled parapet topped by crocketed pinnacles. The porch has two storeys, a room above and a tunnel vault, while its inner doorway shows a round-arched head set within a segmental arch. Inside, the chancel screen was designed by Temple Moore and the pulpit and screen by Scott. Visitors find a 14th-century sedilia in the chancel and a Jacobean reredos in the Lady Chapel. A brass memorial commemorates Lady Brooke, who died in 1600. The embattled parapets continue along the aisles and nave, giving the exterior a continuous line of defence-like detail. The tower’s glazed oculi and two-light bell openings add vertical accents to the skyline. The church’s stone fabric and careful detailing reflect centuries of craftsmanship in a quiet Yorkshire market town.