The angel ceilings
All the angel ceilings were originally painted in bright colours. The twelve angels in the Chancel were repainted in the 1970s. The twelve in each of the side aisles to the Chancel have now lost all their original paint. They are consequently often difficult to interpret. The descriptions below are therefore tentative.
In all three sections of the roof, the angels at the east end have only one wing. It appears that these angels were originally up against the east wall. They are now for some reason a small distance away from it.
In any event most of the angels’ wings are post-medieval in date. It is probable that they were deliberately broken in the upheavals of the Reformation or the puritan ascendancy after the English Civil War.
Chancel north side, west to east:
1. Next to Rood Screen: Angel holding reliquary
2. Angel with thurible on chain
3. Angel playing harpsichord
4. Angel playing viol
5. Angel playing cithern
2. Gabriel
Chancel south side, west to east:
1. Next to Rood Screen: Angel holding reliquary
2. Angel with long scroll
3. Angel holding a crown
4. Guardian angel carrying a soul to heaven
5. Angel playing portable organ
6. The Virgin Mary
South Aisle (St Nicholas Chapel) north side, west to east:
1. Angel (half-singed) holding crown? / Tree of life?
2. Angel playing cithern
3. Angel holding shield? / open book?
4. Angel holding closed book?
5. Angel holding shield
6. Angel holding closed book
South Aisle (St Nicholas Chapel) south side, west to east:
1. Angel singing from open music book
2. Angel holding closed book
3. Angel holding chalice
4. Angel holding mitre
5. Angel MC holding open missal
6. Angel holding reliquary
North Aisle (Lady Chapel), north side, west to east:
1. Angel singing from open music book
2. Guardian angel carrying a soul to heaven
3. Angel holding crown
4. Another ditto
5. Angel playing a portable organ
6. Angel singing from open music book
North Aisle (Lady Chapel), south side, west to east:
1. Angel holding scroll
2. Another ditto
3. Angel playing cithern
4. Angel holding reliquary
5. Angel holding closed book
6. Angel holding sealed book / sealed chest?
Hammerbeams roofs
These ceiling angels are all carved on the underside of hammerbeams, largely concealing them.
Hammerbeams are an engineering device to enable wooden arches to cover a wide span. This peculiarly English technique enabled such marvels as the roof of Westminster Hall, which was built in the late 1390s and spans the immense width of 68 feet (21 metres).
Hammerbeams project out horizontally out from the top of the wall. The arches that support the roof rest on the inner ends of the hammerbeams, which are considerably closer together than the walls and make the space easier to bridge.
Hammerbeams were often highly decorated. In All Saints the aisles are too narrow to make hammer-beams a necessity, but they make an excellent support for the 36 angels, which seem to float above our heads beneath the ceiling.
The hammerbeams are easier to spot in the Lady Chapel, where the eye is not distracted by the colours, than in the Chancel. As can be seen in this photograph,the two horizontal angels on the left and right are actually the hammerbeams themselves, carved in the likeness of angels on the underside. All 36 angels are carved hammerbeams in this way. The arched roof supports curve upwards from the inner ends of the hammerbeams (the angels’ heads) on which they rest. This reduces by one third the width of the span to be bridged, from angel-head to angel-head rather than from wall to wall.
Green men
These were originally an ancient fertility symbol, but by the time of the chancel ceilings at All Saints they had been ‘baptised’ and were seen as symbol of resurrection life.
This page supplements the corresponding page in the Church Guidebook, available in the church or here on the website.