All Saints Church in Darfield - Part 5

A view down the nave to the chancel

Entering the porch of All Saints church in Darfield, having already quickly surveyed the stonework of its exterior, the first thing that caught my eye was a carved headstop to the C14 arch of the south doorway, which was covered in algae and strongly efflorescing. 

The south door

The headstop on the opposite side of the arch was also weathered to the extent that its details could no longer be determined, but it didn’t show any signs of dampness. Looking down the door jambs, the recrystallization of salts from the rising groundwater has caused the stone to deteriorate, as I had also noted on the east elevation. 

Headstops to the south door

With a noticeboard immediately on the right, my eyes naturally wandered to the adjoining baptistery and its font, which Pevsner describes as “Octagonal, Perp.” but I didn’t stop to look closely at its details. 

 

The font

Looking along the south arcade and down the south aisle, the octagonal columns and capitals are typically English Decorated Gothic in style and the north arcade, as seen through its arches, appears to be of the same age and style. 

The south arcade and south aisle

The stonework above the arches of the north arcade comprises well squared ashlar blocks, which continues up into the clerestory without any obvious changes in the pattern; however, when moving into the nave and looking at the masonry of the south arcade, there is an obvious change with roughly squared and coursed masonry being succeeded by ashlar. 

The north arcade

Usually, this would suggest that an English Perpendicular Gothic style clerestory has been added to the pre-existing Decorated Gothic style nave and arcades, but as observed when surveying its exterior, the windows of the north and south clerestory are identical and are considered to be Decorated Gothic by various authorities. 

A change in masonry styles above the south arcade

The continuity of styles in the arcades and the clerestory is evidence that these were constructed during a single phase of planned rebuilding in the C14. The change from coursed rubble to ashlar masonry might therefore simply reflect the implementation of the trend for using large blocks, once building had commenced.

A view along the nave to the tower arch

The tower arch appears to me to be in the same style as the arcades, with matching octagonal imposts, and it is set in coursed and roughly squared rubble walling of the Norman tower. At high level there is an old roof line and another is seen above the chancel arch, which is narrower than the tower arch and has different style imposts. 

The chancel arch