All Saints' Church

Medieval parish church with Norman origins, Anglo-Saxon carvings, and a peaceful riverside churchyard

All Saints' Church stands near the river in Otley, a large and dignified medieval building with origins in the Norman period. The church has been rebuilt and extended many times over the centuries, but fragments of its Anglo-Saxon past survive — there are pieces of Viking-age carved stone in the churchyard and in the church itself, evidence of Danish settlement in the area.

The churchyard is one of the most pleasant in Yorkshire — well-kept, quiet, shaded by old trees, and backing onto the river meadows. Inside, the church is properly medieval in scale, with good stone carving and some decent Victorian glass. A memorial to those who died building the Bramhope railway tunnel (1849) is one of the more unusual churchyard monuments in the country — a replica of the tunnel portal marks the graves of 23 workers killed in the construction.

things to do sight