Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

This is a parish church of exceptional architectural importance, combining elements from the 12th to 15th centuries with substantial 19th-century restoration.

The earliest work dates to the early 12th century, comprising the nave and chancel. The west tower was added around 1200, with the vestry probably dating to the 13th century. The belfry and spire were constructed in the 14th or 15th century, while the south aisle and porch are late 15th-century additions. The building underwent major restoration in 1860, with the nave restored by John Dobson and the chancel by Ewan Christian.

The church is constructed of squared stone with cut dressings. Roofs are of graduated Lakeland slate over the nave and chancel, with leaded roofs to the aisle, porch and vestry. The plan is unusually extensive, with a long nave measuring 27.6 by 7.6 metres, a west tower, a five-bay south aisle with two-storey porch, a two-bay aisleless chancel, and a formerly two-storey north vestry.

The tower is in three stages with a south-west stair turret. It features a plinth and chamfered setbacks at the lower-stage sill level, between stages, and midway up the belfry. The lower stage contains lancet windows on each side; the second stage has a lancet on the south. The turret, rising to midway up the belfry, has five stone steps leading to an inserted boarded studded door on the south, with small loops. The belfry displays paired pointed openings (part-blocked on the west) and a corbelled-out parapet. A clock face, added in 1875, is positioned below the bell openings on the south. The octagonal stone spire has a worn crocketed doorway to the parapet on the south and gabled lucarnes, with a moulded finial and weathervane. The west wall to either side of the tower shows angle pilasters and string courses typical of the 12th-century nave.

The south aisle and porch have a moulded plinth with slender stepped buttresses between bays and at angles, and strings below a moulded parapet. The porch is covered by a moulded arch (heavily cemented) beneath an 18th-century sundial and two-light window. The east wall features a chamfered loop, a single-light window above, and a pent-roofed stair turret with boarded studded door and loop window. The west wall contains a chamfered loop. Inside the porch are stone benches and a groined vault with moulded ribs and a central boss bearing a shield, with studded double doors in a moulded arch. The aisle contains three-light windows (except for a five-light east window) with 19th-century tracery set in old four-centred hollow-chamfered openings with hoodmoulds.

The original 12th-century north nave wall displays a plinth, pilaster buttresses, and strings at the sill and impost levels of round-headed windows, with a restored eaves cornice on carved corbels. The second bay from the west contains a broad pilaster flanking a blocked north door, with a sunk gable-headed panel featuring a round arch of two chamfered orders, the outer order on shafts with worn scalloped capitals. At the east end is a shallow projection containing an inserted double door and small window, housing a newel stair to a chamber above the chancel vault. Immediately west is an inserted late medieval square-headed window set low in the wall. Two large later medieval stepped buttresses stand near the west end.

The chancel's south wall displays similar features, though the west bay with priest's door is largely 19th-century restoration. An old blocked priest's door, very low and narrow with a cambered lintel beneath a plain tympanum, survives in the east bay. The east end contains three 19th-century stepped windows. The north wall retains an original window west of the vestry. The vestry has two 19th-century windows and an older lancet at high level on the north. The east wall shows a chamfered setback broken by an inserted square-headed window and blocked door, with paired lancets at high level. The west wall contains a window of three tiny round-arched lights cut within a single slab, positioned below a high-level lancet.

Both nave and chancel have 19th-century east gables with circular windows in Romanesque style and stepped copings on moulded kneelers, each crowned with a finial cross.

Interior features include sill and impost strings on the west and north walls of the nave, with moulded rear arches on shafted jambs bearing scalloped capitals. The 12th-century west end, concealed externally by the tower, remains intact except for an inserted round arch below the central window. At the east end of the north wall is a blocked chamfered round-arched doorway with plain tympanum leading to the stair turret. The nave arcades comprise quatrefoil piers and similar responds with moulded capitals and bases, carrying deeply-moulded arches; shield hoodmould stops appear on both sides in the two western bays. The aisle contains a damaged ogee-arched piscina and a round-arched recess further west.

The nave features a 19th-century scissor-braced roof on moulded stone corbels. The aisle, parvise chamber over the porch, and vestry all retain late medieval low-pitched roofs with cambered tie-beams; longitudinal timbers in the aisle are moulded.

The 12th-century chancel arch displays moulded inner orders and an outer order with fan-like ornament and a beaded hood. The jambs contain three half-shafts with scalloped capitals and a chamfered impost band to the nave. The chancel has a sill string and rear arches as in the nave, with a rib-vault on wall shafts (paired between bays) rising from the string. The diagonal vault ribs bear zig-zag ornament. One original window now opens into the vestry. Square-headed chamfered aumbries are positioned on the north and south of the sanctuary.

A carved 19th-century reredos in Romanesque style incorporates Minton tiles. Early 18th-century wrought-iron altar rails display the crest and monogram of Matthew White of Blagdon. A plain octagonal font, probably 15th-century, stands in the church. Remains of medieval glass survive in the tracery head of the aisle's east window. A Saxon headstone and two early medieval headstone crosses are located in the chancel. A fine early 14th-century knight's effigy rests on a 17th-century table tomb with an inscription (of uncertain reliability) ascribing it to 'Sir Hugh of Morwicke who gave the Common to this Towne of Warkworth'. An armorial tablet on the north of the chancel commemorates Ann Hunter, who died in 1720. Various 18th and early 19th-century wall tablets line the nave and chancel, many signed by Davies of Newcastle. Royal arms of James II, dated 1685, hang in the aisle. Fixed in the recess of the blocked priest's door is a medieval face jug recovered during 1977 excavations of the Magdalen Chapel site. The belfry retains old pegged bell frames and a clock mechanism donated in 1700 by George Lawson of Gloster Hill.