All Saints Church merits an entry in Simon Jenkins book ‘England’s Thousand Best Churches’ published in 1999 by Allen Lane the Penguin Press. ‘This burly Norman church....offers an oasis of rurality amid the surrounding estates. Its exterior is much battered. Subsidence has meant huge buttresses propping up the west and south sides. In 1659 the old cross tower had to be demolished, and the existing one was built detached from the church. This is a rare instance of church building of any sort during the Commonwealth. The new tower is massive and linked to the church by curious wooden galleries, as if part of a Shakespearian theatre.

The interior is a complete surprise, a Victorian restoration by Giles Gilbert Scott of a late Norman church with hardly a pointed arch in sight. The original fabric must contend with the hand of the restorer, but for once the Victorian does not emerge the winner, especially in the chancel.

The chancel is spectacular, lit by at least one clear glass window. This is the end of the Norman era c.1200. Dogtooth abounds, arches are pointed, capitals have stiff-leaf and shafts the ring of Early Gothic. The rib vault is magnificent, excellently offset by Scott’s restored east windows. At the apex of the vaults are stone bosses, one depicting the Lamb of God. Two ancient tomb recesses face each other across the chancel. The font is Saxon, as shapeless as a Henry Moore.’

The origins of the present structure are thought to date from about 1170 when Henry of Blois, the Bishop of Winchester and half brother of King Stephen, directed that a church be built on the site of an earlier Saxon building. The stone font is the only visible artefact in the church that dates from the Saxons. It is speculated that the stone masons released by the completion of Winchester Cathedral in 1122 may have been involved in the construction.

The tower of the church was built over either the central crossing or the North Transept and housed four bells by 1543. Their combined weight however caused the supporting walls by 1556 to need the addition of ungainly buttresses. In 1642 a new bell frame was put into the tower to accommodate 2 new bells. In 1657 the tower had to be taken down to save the whole building from collapse.

The church and its churchyard had been an outpost fortified by the Roundheads in the Civil War in which it changed hands several times but was never bombarded. The Puritan rector, Humphrey Weaver, was instrumental in getting help in cash and kind to put up a new tower. It was modelled on that of St. Matthew’s Battersea following reconnaissance by four members of the Vestry, and was erected in its present position at a cost of £428 in 1659. Each of the six bells is inscribed. To mark the Millennium a new bell frame was installed in 2000 with the addition of 2 bells and the 6 old bells were retuned. The original frame of 1659 was retained. More details can be found in the Bellringers website.

By the mid 1840s under the energetic leadership of the curate, Edmund Yealden White, a grand nephew of the famous naturalist Rev Gilbert White of Selbourne, the first of two major restoration projects was begun. Mr Benjamin Ferrey was the architect, a friend and pupil of A W N (‘Gothic’) Pugin. This involved repairing the north porch and roof, replacing the clerestory and aisle windows, clearing out the wooden galleries and high pulpit and tidying up the Chancel and Nave arches. He also replaced the west window with its present two lancets. One of his favourite masons was John Hardy, father of the famous novelist Thomas. It is probable that the young Hardy, who later studied to be an architect under Ferrey’s auspices, came to see work in progress.

The second major restoration in 1871 was carried out by George Gilbert Scott, son of the famous Sir George and father of the equally famous Sir Giles. His work centred on the Chancel, raising the floor to its present level and replacing the east window with the present two lancets. More controversially however he covered the exterior walls in pebbledash render which did not allow the walls to breathe thereby storing up the present problems we face in drying out the structure.

Plan of All Saints Church Crondall. Based on a Plan by M A Jefferies FRICSs

In 1996 an appeal was launched to fund major repair and restoration work. See All Saints Restoration Appeal.

The names of the vicars/rectors date back to 1230 and are listed in the porch of the church. Two of the most influential parsons are excluded because they were curates in charge. They are Edmund White 1828-1860 and the Rev Charles Stooks 1877-1885 (although the latter returned as Vicar 1919-1924). Parson White was active at a time of agrarian upheaval and did much to alleviate the sufferings of the poorest in the community. He also influenced the leading families, especially the Lefroy family to support many local charitable causes and to found outlying churches in Church Crookham, Fleet and after he died Ewshot. White is the subject of a book ‘Ordained in Powder’ by a later vicar, the Rev Roland Butterfield. Rev Stooks also left a strong legacy of local history writing ‘A History of Crondall and Yateley’ published in 1904. Some 200 years of pluralist and absentee vicars came to an end in 1859 when the Lefroy family purchased the patronage from Holy Cross Winchester and they were able to install a resident incumbent following the death of Rev W D Harrison in 1891. This was finally transferred from the Lefroy family to the Bishop of Guildford in 1977.

All Saints houses a number of interesting artefacts. One of the finest is the 14th Century brass memorial of Nicholas de Kaerwent Rector 1361-1381 in the chancel floor, from which rubbings can be taken with the permission of the Vicar. Note the Fylfot cross (swastika) motif which is to be seen on his vestments. The family tombs of the Giffords and Paulets are on either sides of the sanctuary. Sir George Paulet was a commissioner for the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s and sixty years later the last of the Giffards became Archbishop of Rheims and crowned Kings of France. The Church Chest in the chancel dates back to 1546 when it was bought second hand for 2 shillings. Its three locks, one for the Vicar and for the two Churchwardens, were to keep safe the new Parish Records and Accounts required by the ‘injunctions’ of Thomas Cromwell issued in 1538 to the Reformed Church in England. So for nearly 450 years, until they were removed in 1984 to the Surrey History Centre in Woking, the Church Accounts were kept, giving us a fascinating picture of the intimate details of the running of the Parish. The registers of christenings, marriages and burials in the parish from 1558 have been transcribed and indexed and are available for inspection.

A more detailed guide to All Saints is on sale in the church for a small fee.