This ancient and beautiful little church is almost hidden among the yew trees at the heart of the village. From the churchyard there are stunning views of Lincoln cathedral a mile and a half across the valley, and All Saints has long benefited from the link between the two.

The Manor of Canwick was held by the same early Norman bishops who built the cathedral, and they made sure the Saxon church in Canwick was re-built to an unusually high standard. An arcade of Norman columns still stands inside the entrance, and the richly carved chancel arch echoes the famous West Door of the cathedral itself. Later medieval additions enlarged the building, and thanks to painstaking and sensitive restoration today's visitor can see the story of the last thousand years written in the stones of the church.

But All Saints' own story is even longer than that. Just as the present day village looks across to the cathedral and Lincoln Castle, so in Roman times a villa in what is now Canwick looked across to the fortress walls of Lindum Colonia. All Saints rests on the site of that villa - quite literally, because instead of ordinary foundations the church is built on a tiled Roman pavement.

It seems the church may actually stand on the very spot where the villa's small pagan temple was placed. But in the later Roman period pagan religion gave way to Christianity, and the finding in the churchyard of a coin of Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine, suggests that the history of Christian worship on the site of All Saints may stretch back more than 1600 years into the distant past. It is a church quite literally rooted in the dawn of the Christian era.

For much of the middle ages the church was run by the monks of nearby St Katherine's Priory, and when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries his officials carefully recorded the King's gains. These included the Grange and Rectory farms in "Canewyke", worth a grand total of eighteen pounds, eight shillings and sixpence. Later the patronage came to the Mercers' Company, oldest of the London City Livery Companies, and they remain valued patrons to this day.

Local researchers have produced a list of every priest to serve All Saints since the 11^th century, including the 13^th century incumbent whose tombstone lies just inside the door. He was buried facing west, so that he would always face his flock!

During most of the last 250 years the history of the church has been closely linked to the Sibthorp family who held Canwick Hall until the 1940s. They were largely responsible for All Saints' good maintenance, and their history can be read from the family monuments in the chancel. The walls of the nave are decorated with Sibthorp "hatchments", diagonally set coats-of-arms on which the family motto has been replaced by the single Latin word Resurgam  -

"I Shall Rise Again"

© Canwick PC 2005 - 2008