All Saints Church, Holdenby

The present church was largely built between 1330 and 1340 by Richard Holdenby, the lord of the manor. It is not the first church on the site, because the presence of a rector is recorded in 1220, but there are no remains of an earlier church. The nave, the aisles, and the lower part of the tower date from the 14th century. During the 15th century the upper part of the tower was added, and the north aisle was altered and its roof was raised. In the 1570s Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor to Elizabeth I, built a new mansion and moved the dwellings of the village away from the vicinity of the church, leaving it isolated. In 1843–44 the chancel was rebuilt to a design by Sir Henry Dryden…

The church is constructed in lias ashlar stone with roofs tiled in a fish-scale pattern. Its plan consists of a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel, and a west tower. The tower is in three stages, with a clasping buttress on the west and an angle buttress at its junction with the nave. In the lowest stage is a two-light west window. The top stage contains two-light bell openings on each side and it has a crenellated parapet. On both the north and south sides of the chancel are lancet windows with buttresses between them, and the east window consists of a triple lancet with a lozenge-shaped window above it. In the south wall of the south aisle there are two three-light windows, and…