All Saints, Down Ampney

All Saints is a Grade I Church of England parish church in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, in the Diocese of Gloucester. The parish church was consecrated in 1265; the parish site states that it was built by the Knights Templar.

Overview

Historic England records a church consecrated in 1265, a fourteenth-century spire, a fifteenth-century south porch, nineteenth-century clerestory, aisles and transepts, and restoration of the chancel and north transept in 1863. The fabric is rubble stone, coursed to the chancel and north transept, with stone slate roofs, coped verges and cross finials. The three-stage west tower has flat western angle buttresses, an embattled parapet and an octagonal spire. Lower stages have single lancets; the belfry stage has a four-bay Early English arcade on each face. The chancel east window is a stepped triple lancet with internal Purbeck shafts. The four-bay Transitional north arcade has cylindrical piers, stiff-leaf capitals and soffits painted with restored thirteenth-century red cinquefoil flowers.

Late nineteenth-century fittings — pulpit, reredos, rood screen and south transept screen — were designed by Charles Ponting from 1898. The south transept holds recumbent effigies of Sir Nicholas de Valers (d. 1300) and Lady Margaret de Valers (d. 1320) under a cusped ogee arch. The north transept has a 1637 Hungerford monument. Ralph Vaughan Williams was born at the vicarage in 1872; a 2022 sanctuary window by Tom Denny, on the theme of The Pilgrim’s Progress, commemorates the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1089941
• Ampney Churches: All Saints, Down Ampney
• Diocese of Gloucester: Vaughan Williams window