Sunday, 26 June 2022

All Saints, Kingsley

All Saints sits 5 miles west of Alton on the road to Bordon. It's a good representative of those small Victorian parish churches, built by estate owners, in their dozens in villages across England.

Built in 1876 to replace the older parish church, it comprises a nave, chancel and south porch. The exterior is of polygonal stonework with ashlar and ironstone banding. The west end is a bell turret with twin openings, and what looks like three bells. Windows are filled with plate tracery. The interior is a bit of a surprise: the nave has rather startling exposed crimson brick, with patterns executed in yellow brick, leading to a more restrained whitewashed chancel. The fittings are all Victorian.

The church sits in a well-kept churchyard on the edge of the village, next to the starting point for a number of walking routes around the delightful Kingsley Common. It is in a combined benefice with Oakhanger, with which it shares regular Sunday services (though, at the time of writing, further parish reorganisation is on the cards).

All Saints, Forge Road, Kingsley GU35 9ND

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