Listed Building record MDR2739 - All Saints' Church, Main Road, Turnditch

All Saints' Church, Main Road, Turnditch, built c1630. 'All Saints' Chapel has plain square windows that are clearly considerably later than the Reformation. However, a closer inspection of the chapel proves it to be of considerable age. The walls are supported by six buttresses, which are likely to date to the Early English period, about the middle of the 13th century. The buttresses at the four angles of the building are merely the elongation of the east and west walls, so they stand out at right angles to the side walls. Some of the masonry on the north side, and that of the lower half of the western wall, is laid in very regular courses, and the stones are on unusual size for a building of such limited dimensions; many of them are three feet or more in length. Inside the chapel, the font is of undoubted antiquity, although its precise age is uncertain. It probably dates to the fifteenth century. The roof of the chapel is ceiled and whitewashed, but three heavy rough-hewn tie-beams protrude below it. These could not, however, have formed part of the original roof, at least not in their present position. There is a comparatively modern bell-turret on the west gable, which contains a single bell.' (1) 'The church at Turnditch, dedicated to All Saints', comprises chancel and nave, with a western bell turret. It was formerly a chapelry under Duffield, but there is no record of its foundation. Above the southeast door is the date 1630, which probably refers to a restoration at that time. The church was restored, enlarged by the addition of a chancel, and refurnished in 1883, at a cost of £700, which was raised by subscription. The font is octagonal in shape, and evidently very ancient. There was no burial ground until 1846; and in 1890 additional ground was consecrated.' (2) The earliest mention of this church is in the report of the Parliamentary Commissioners in 1650, which recommended that Turnditch, being a chapel of Duffield, should be made a parish united to 'Shottle, Posterne and Windley'. The south-east door gives a date of 1630, but Cox dates the walls as being as early as the 13th century. The church was enlarged and the chancel replaced in 1882-4 by Giles & Brookhouse. (3) From the National Heritage List for England: 'PARISH OF TURNDITCH MAIN ROAD SK 24 NE 3/68 Church of All Saints 13.2.67 GV II Anglican Church. Dated 1630 with C18 and C19 additions and alterations. Coursed gritstone rubble with coped gables, and a plain tiled roof. West gable bellcote, south porch, nave and chancel, with vestry to chancel rear wall. C19 gabled bellcote to west end, gabled south porch with shallow buttresses, pointed arched doorway with hoodmould and stops. Four bay nave with 2-light flat headed windows, with segmental cusped heads to lights. Stepped buttresses delineate bays, with doorway to easternmost bay with cambered lintel. Quoined surround and a C18 six-panelled door. Two bay chancel rising off a shallow plinth, with two single light trefoil cusped windows. 3-light east window with simple tracery beneath hoodmould with stops. Late C19 vestry to rear. Listing NGR: SK2955346597.' (4)