Interesting, historical facts about All Saints' Church

All Saints’ Church stands at the southern edge of the village of Wellingore, 10 miles south of Lincoln and the most southerly of the villages on the side of The Cliff (the ‘Lincolnshire Edge’ escarpment) where the main road to Grantham diverges from the Roman Ermine Street . “The Church looks splendid, perched on the edge of the Cliff – especially so when floodlit at night.” It is 246 feet above mean sea level, with wonderful views from the south door, looking down a re-entrant to the Witham and Trent Valleys some 210 feet below and to the spires of St Chad’s, Welbourn and St Swithun’s, Leadenham.

The Church layout is conventional with a nave, north and south aisles and a raised chancel. There is a south door, a north door with porch and a west tower. The nave and aisle floor are approximately three feet below ground level and would appear to be a foot lower than they were originally laid. The building is mostly Decorated and Perpendicular (13th to 15th Century) with a tower and a stunted spire . Although it is reputed to be on the site of a Saxon church, the oldest visible feature is the Romanesque sedilia in the south chancel wall which would seem to date to the late 12th Century.

The chancel arch and the east window are Decorated, dating to the late 13th or early 14th Century. The arcades, north chapel arch and tower arch are late 14th Century and the remaining windows are Perpendicular, probably dating to the 15th Century . The finest of these, with a fleuron surround, is in the vestry at the west end of the north aisle. The Church was heavily restored in 1878, when the chancel was slightly lengthened and the tower parapet and spire were renovated in 1924 .

The interior walls are rendered and whitewashed. The west tower is un-buttressed with a west lancet, three Decorated corbels and Decorated bell-openings. The tower is perhaps the most modern of the ‘late derivatives’ group of the very distinctive Romanesque towers on Lincolnshire . 

There is a peel of six bells, the earliest probably dating to the 15th Century and the latest to 1913 . The oldest monument would appear to be two alabaster effigies on a tomb chest in the north aisle (not in situ). The effigies are reputed to be to Sir Richard de Buslingthorpe and his wife. However, the date of the figures (early to mid 15th Century) would suggest a different attribution.

Almost completely hidden behind the organ at the east end of the north aisle is a fairly large stone wall monument to Charles Wingfelde who died in 1575 (a photograph of it is on the north wall, west of the “Buslingthorpe” tomb). There is also a brass monument (not in situ) to Mary Ellis and dated 1637 to the west of the tomb and two slate tablets from the 18th Century above the north door. The reredos, a mahogany relief carving of da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’, is modern, having been commissioned in 1969. The only stained glass is in the south aisle. It is Edwardian, with two windows in the east window and two in south wall, the latter dating to 1922.

The pews and stalls are mostly modern although there are some old poppy-head bench ends and top rails in the north aisle and behind the north choir stalls. 

The substantial remains of a 13th Century pillar piscina (extremely rare) is being prepared for display and a medieval stone coffin of unknown provenance lies outside the tower.

The church is open every day and is flood lit every night until midnight.

The bells are rung regularly by resident bell ringers and other guilds visit regularly.

In 2023 the church installed a Timeline, covering Wellingore, the church and the nation from the 11th Century up to the 20th Century.