Kempston
All Saints Church
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Set at the confluence of the mill race with the main river and approached along an avenue of lime trees, this church occupies a Norman site and still incorporates parts of the original building. The massive stone walls of the lower part of the western tower date from the early twelfth century although the Norman upper part was rebuilt three hundred years later when the vaulted church porch was added. This has a scratched mass-dial on its wall and an upper room, or parvise, reached by an exterior stone stairway. The actual church door is contemporary with the porch having been in use now for some five hundred years. The church interior shows original Norman arches at the east and west ends of the nave with Early English arches between. Above these rises the fifteenth century clerestory. The carved chancel screen is surmounted by a modern rood loft; but the cross beam of the original rood loft still remains as do the doorways and the staircases which climb up within each side of the chancel arch to reach it. The font, with figures sculptured around its bowl, dates back six hundred years. Other features of interest include some panels preserved from the medieval chancel screen still displaying their original colourings in painted scenes from the Garden of Eden; also an ancient grave stone which is believed to be that of a Crusading knight. A wall tablet commemorates Henry Stuart who was a nineteenth century Member of Parliament for Bedford. On his mother's side he was a descendent of William Penn, the well-known Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania in North America, and he also claimed a royal descent from the Stuart kings.
Harry Baker, son of a former vicar of Kempston, who died in 1938 at the age of sixteen, is commemorated by a well designed stained glass window in the south aisle. This depicts 'Christ during his apprenticeship as a carpenter, standing beside a bench with his vice, mallet and other tools, whilst fowls which have wandered into the workshop, peck around the floor.
L. Edgar Pike
Extract from: The Guide to Kempston Urban District, 1970.
Reproduced by permission of Kempston Town Council.
Page last updated: 30th January 2014