Chancel Ceiling and walls painted by Gerald Horsley, All Saints Church, Southbank Street, Leek, Staffordshire

Parish church. 1887. By Richard Norman Shaw. Coursed and squared rock faced rubble with plain-tiled roofs. PLAN: wide nave and aisles under heavy roof; massive crossing tower, and high chancel over vestry, accommodating to sloping site. EXTERIOR: W front has wide 9-light window, divided by 2 mullions and with a transom. Reticulated tracery. Narrow 2-light foiled windows in W walls of aisles. Deep NW porch with wide shallow-arched entrance, internally divided into 2 bays, each with small window, 3 of which contain stained glass by Morris and Co, dated 1895, 1897 and 1898. The other windows are by Wooliscroft and Sons. Simple moulded archway to S doorway. Long nave with lean-to aisles and low clerestory. 4-light Perpendicular style windows to aisles, square headed 3-light windows to clerestory, and overhanging eaves above. Crossing expressed by heavy buttressing clasping the aisles. Austere and heavy tower with clasping buttresses. 2 simple 3-light Decorated style windows in the tower, and relieving arches over paired lancets recessed in square panels in the upper stage. Small louvred openings above, and heavy parapet minimally stepped to suggest embattling. Pyramidal roof surmounted by weather vane. Paired Decorated windows with reticulated tracery set high up in chancel wall. Wide E window of 9-lights. INTERIOR: a wide and well-lit span, in accordance with Tractarian principals. Nave arcade of 4 bays, the multiple chamfered arches carried on short octagonal piers. Western bay somewhat narrower than the rest. Arcade continues as a single bay in the crossing. Wide W window with clear glass, and 3-arched recesses beneath, painted to designs attributed to William Morris with foliage and flowers, with an angel in the central arch. Shallow crown-post roof structure. Wide crossing arch sprung from between the arches of nave arcade and crossing. Flying buttresses of tower straddle the aisles (which continue the whole length of the nave) at the same point. Chancel arch at E of crossing narrower than W crossing arch, since it is carried from semi-octagonal responds. Steps lead down from E end of N aisle to vestry beneath chancel. FITTINGS: panelled wood screen with one painted panel

separates aisle from organ chamber to its east. Low stone screen to chancel with central cast-iron gates. Walls of chancel entirely painted by Gerald Horsley; emblematic high dado incorporating castles, crowns and pomegranates, on which are superimposed in text, the Virtues; figurative painting of the Heavenly City and the Tree of Life above. Emblematic painting to ceiling, with 2 panels representing the Annunciation and Christ in Majesty. Triptych designed by Lethaby, originally painted by F Hamilton Jackson, subsequently poorly repainted. Reredos of stained wood panelling, with vine scroll canopy frieze. Painted chancel chair in Pre-Raphaelite style. Lady chapel to E of S aisle: stained wood dado panelling with incised frieze, the walls and ceiling above entirely painted. E wall by Horsley, the Annunciation; the rest by Edgar Platt (executed and signed by Thomas Shaw, 1915) and depicting St Francis with the birds, Adam and Eve expelled from the garden of Eden, and Noah's Ark. Font directly facing the altar (in accordance with Tractarian principals), and against the W wall: dated 1886, to designs of Lethaby; green marble, a heavy, austere octagonal basin with lettering in low-relief in a band towards the top, and symbols of the evangelists at the cardinal points at the base. Pulpit also designed by Lethaby; stone base with wood octagonal body, in which projecting ribs at angles are intricately carved with foliate openwork. Scalloped moulding to recessed panels with filigree openwork. Canopy hood over. STAINED GLASS: an overall plan submitted by Morris and Co. in 1893 was never implemented in full, but the company was responsible for much of the stained glass in the church, contributed over several years. N aisle: mostly by Morris and Co to designs of Burne-Jones executed during the 1930s. Easternmost window by John Platt, also employing a Pre-Raphaelite style. E window, Morris and Co., the Tree of Jesse, 1923. Wood panelled war memorial in N aisle, with central panel painted by C Davidson. Lady chapel E window, Morris and Co, 1887; SE window by Gerald Horsley, 1891. SW windows by John Platt of Leek, painted by Harold Rhodes of York, 1920. S aisle window, Morris and Co, 1947-8. The church also contains an important collection of work by the Leek School of Embroiderers.

National Grid Reference: SJ 98499 56125