This church is set in the western suburbs of Bury, yet not so far from the centre that it fills a void. St George, which it very much resembles in design, is marooned on the tough housing estates north of the A14, but All Saints is settled comfortably on the posher side of town, almost a luxury for local Anglicans who don’t have the twenty minute walk to St Mary or the Cathedral.
 
It took me some time to find it, because it is away from the main roads, and I didn’t have a map, only an address. The first five people I asked had never heard of Park Road. The sixth person, however, directed me to it easily – it was only 100 metres from where I was standing. “There’s a church on the corner”, he added helpfully.
 
And there is – All Saints occupies a prominent corner site, with a third side open to a car park. But the fourth side, which is probably the most interesting, is severely hemmed in by the Church Hall, and a clear view of it is difficult; a photograph is nearly impossible. It is the west end, and the porch has some amusing echoes of the traditional Suffolk style - the totally unnecessary buttresses, for example. It is the grandest feature of the building.
 
Mortlock tells me that the church was built in 1962 by Cecil Beadsmore Smith. Tall windows along the flanks echo medieval counterparts, and a vestry and offices echo transepts. I quite liked this, the windows especially.
 
Obviously, I tried the door. And obviously, it was locked. I thought that there was maybe half a chance that, this being a weekday, some organisation might be using the church for community purposes, but this was not the case. This disappointed me particularly, because Mortlock tells me that the All Saints altarpiece is by Ellen Rope, an older member of the Rope family. Her work can also be seen at Leiston and Blaxhall. She died in the 1930s, so this piece must have come from elsewhere. Also, the lectern is dated 1939, apparently; I wondered if furnishings had been brought here in recent years from other Anglican churches that had been declared redundant.

As an outstation of St Mary, I assume that All Saints is also in the Low Church tradition. This may also account for it being locked, athough this part of Bury probably doesn't have as great a need for access to spiritual comfort as some others.

All Saints, Bury, is located on the west side of town, on Park Road. It is locked without a keyholder.

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