All Saints Church in Youlgrave - Part 1

A general view of All Saints church from the south-east

Approaching All Saints church from the south-west along Church Street, having briefly explored some of the vernacular architecture of Youlgrave, the tall tower is a very impressive sight, with its stepped angle buttresses, battlements and crocketed pinnacles standing out from the austere secular buildings beneath it. 

A view of All Saints church from Church Street

These features, together with numerous gargoyles and the tracery to its large west window, are considered to be typical of the C15 Perpendicular Gothic style and, as with most of the churches that I have visited so far, late mediaeval embellishment is seen in the rest of the exterior. 

A general view of the north side of All Saints church

Walking clockwise from the tower, there is a very distinct change in the style of the masonry from large, elongated ashlar blocks to the irregular square blocks that make up the stretch of windowless wall between the tower and the north aisle. Looking at the windows, those of the clerestory are much later in style than the windows in the rest of the church and are believed to be late C15 in age.

The north elevation of the west end of the nave

Furthermore, although the clerestory maintains the same pattern of masonry as the tower, there are also subtle changes in the colour of the individual blocks of gritstone that probably reflect a different quarry source. 

The west window of the north aisle

Moving on to the north aisle, the flat headed window of its west elevation are in a Perpendicular Gothic style, although its sharp profiles show that these have been renewed during the 1869-71 work by Norman Shaw, which has been considered as a very sensitive Victorian restoration. 

A general view of the masonry to the north aisle

On the north elevation, however, there is a considerable amount of Norman coursed rubble masonry left in situ, with the lower parts of much of the wall being entirely Carboniferous limestone, although the western section adjacent to the blocked round arched doorway has a mixture of gritstone and limestone rising from the foundations.

A recycled window head in the north aisle

The post-Norman walling has evidently been partially rebuilt using recycled limestone blocks, as well as a round window head that was carved from a single block of gritstone, and a close inspection of the limestone blocks reveal that much of it is packed full of fossil brachiopod shells. 

Fossil brachiopod shells

The style of masonry is similar to that seen between the north aisle and the tower, with only the castellated parapet being composed of large, well squared blocks, although the renewed square headed windows may originally have been inserted at the same time.

The east end of the north aisle