All Saints
Cawthorne , Yorkshire
The earliest reference to a church in Cawthorne can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, the current church is the third to stand on this site.
The present building was started in 1480 and completed about 20 years later. It is unusual for an old parish church as it has remained essentially unaltered from that date, due to there being no Georgian or Victorian restoration to the structure. It stands on the site of two earlier churches, dating from 1160.
Discover the recycled elements of these old churches as you explore, including the Norman font base and original medieval stone altar. This altar was recovered from the churchyard in the 1920s and is now incorporated into the main altar, surrounded by Laudian altar rails.
The clean architectural line of the building is superbly complemented by a gilded hammer beam roof in the nave. Most of the stained glass is Victorian (though there are some remaining fragments of the original medieval glass, notably the window depicting Mary Magdalene in the Beaumont Chapel).
See magnificent carvings including poppy heads in the choir stalls, the ‘imp’, original roof bosses and four Green Men in the south chapel.