Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

This is a parish church of exceptionally complex build and rebuild spanning the 12th to 15th centuries, with significant 19th-century restoration.

The earliest fabric consists of 12th-century north and south walls to the transepts and responds to the nave arcades. The 13th century saw addition of the tower and the west bay to the nave arcade. The early 14th century brought the chancel, followed by a late 14th-century vestry. The 15th century saw the most extensive remodelling: new arcades, chancel arch, clerestory, aisles, north and south chapels, buttresses and parapets were all constructed or rebuilt during this period.

Major restoration works took place in 1867–68, which included removal of the parvis, rebuilding of the south porch, reconstruction of the chancel east wall and nave east gable, restoration of windows, and addition of parapets to nave and chancel. Further repairs were carried out in 1883 and 1910 to the tower and south aisle wall.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with some sandstone; the lower sections of the north and south transept walls use cobbles and coursed rubble, with clay tile repairs and patching throughout. The roofs employ lead to the aisles and vestry, Westmorland slate to the south side of the nave, and Welsh slate to the north side.

The plan consists of a west tower with west entrance, a six-bay nave with aisles embracing the tower, north and south transepts, a south porch and north door, a three-bay chancel with two-bay north and south chapels, a south door, and a vestry adjoining the north side. Plinths and moulded string courses run throughout except on the transept north wall. Buttresses with offsets to angles and between bays are present, topped with coped embattled parapets featuring crocketed pinnacles.

The tower is unbuttressed and comprises four stages. Stair-lighting slits appear to the south-west angle, with string courses separating each stage. The first stage contains a pointed west door with three chamfered and one inner keeled order on restored shafts with moulded capitals. The second stage has a west lancet with chamfered and keeled arch and hoodmould on twin shafts, plus north and south lancets. The third stage shows single lancets to each side, with a clockface to the south. The belfry stage has three lancets to each side with double-chamfered reveals and hoodmoulds. Above runs a corbel table with weathered head corbels, topped by an embattled parapet with eight pinnacles.

The north aisle features a pointed hollow-chamfered door with hoodmould; square-headed three-light windows, one with shouldered-arched lights and the rest with cinquefoiled lights and hoodmoulds; and a square-headed four-light traceried west window with hoodmould incorporating carved shields and a corbel table above. The south aisle has similar partly-restored three-light cinquefoiled windows with hoodmoulds. The transepts contain four-centred arch four-light cinquefoiled north and south windows with restored mullions. The nave clerestory has pilaster buttresses between bays and four-centred arch three-light cinquefoiled windows beneath continuous hoodmoulds. The chancel displays pointed three-light traceried north and south windows and a large pointed five-light reticulated east window. The north chapel has a pointed chamfered door, a pair of large square-headed four-light north windows, and a three-light east window with cinquefoiled lights and hoodmoulds. The south chapel shows pointed four-light cinquefoiled south windows with restored mullions and hoodmould, a square-headed three-light traceried east window, and a restored pointed moulded south door with hoodmould. The vestry has a moulded plinth and buttresses; four-centred arch two-light north windows and a three-light east window with foiled lights, wave-moulded reveals and hoodmoulds, a moulded string course, and a coped parapet. The porch has a restored pointed outer arch of two orders with hoodmould and a pointed wave-moulded inner arch of two orders with hoodmould.

Interior

The interior contains six-bay arcades of pointed double-chamfered arches arranged in three sections: a wide central octagonal pier incorporating north-south buttresses; three bays to the east with octagonal piers with plain moulded capitals and bases; and two narrower bays to the west with similar piers and 12th-century chamfered west responds. The western bay dates to the 13th century and is lower and narrower, with a corbelled inner order. Carved shields appear above the north arcade. A 15th-century painted niche to the south-east pier is inscribed to Saint Osyth. The nave roof is a 19th-century hammer-beam construction.

A tall triple-chamfered tower arch with octagonal responds and corbelled inner order dominates the space. A blocked square-headed door and traces of three earlier rooflines survive above. Pointed triple-chamfered north and south tower arches with moulded corbels—those to the west bearing carved heads and stiff-leaf ornament—flank the tower. Tower windows are deeply splayed, with an internal turret containing a spiral staircase.

Fragments of painted text, likely dating from the late 18th to early 19th century, appear on the tower north aisle (formerly the Consistory Court room), which is accessed through a pointed double-chamfered arch.

The south transept served as the Guild Chapel of the Holy Trinity. It contains a cusped ogee-headed niche to the east wall and remains of a 14th–15th-century niche or piscina to the south window, with a section of moulded arch, carved spandrel and brattished frieze. A pointed chamfered door leads to a spiral staircase serving the former rood loft. A pointed double-chamfered chancel arch on octagonal responds spans the chancel, with a squint to the south and corbels for the former rood screen.

The chancel has two-bay north and south arcades of pointed double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers, with octagonal responds to the south; arches die into chamfered responds to the north. A plain piscina is present, alongside a four-centred arch chamfered door to the vestry. An inscribed 13th-century grave slab is reused as a north window sill. A large 16th-century black marble matrix for a monumental brass, possibly to an Abbot of Selby, bears indents for a figure flanked by shields and a staff. A wall tablet to William Shearburn and others, dated c1846, was created by W Audby of York and features a carved frieze and cornice. A wall tablet to John Eadon, of 1833, by Flintoft of York, displays a carved coffin and arms on an obelisk base.

The Dawnay Chapel to the south features a pointed double-chamfered west arch. A 15th-century sepulchre or niche to the south has a sub-cusped ogee arch in a castellated surround. An altar tomb to Sir John Dawnay (died 1493) bears painted carved arms of the Dawnay family and associates, with an applied moulded segmental arch to the north and a pointed niche or aumbry above. An image bracket to the east wall shows carved arms, with wrought-iron brackets above carrying pieces of armour and knight effigies as relics of Sir Thomas Dawnay (died 1642). Fragments of medieval glass survive in the east window. A floor slab dated 1436 commemorates Radulphus Aclome and Margaret his wife, daughter of John Dawnay, and bears an incised cross and inscribed border. A fine white Carrara marble monument to John Dawnay, 5th Viscount Downe, dated 1837, was carved by F Chantrey; it shows a life-sized standing figure in parliamentary robes on an inscribed cylindrical base.

The Stapleton Chapel to the north holds a good warble wall monument to Lady Elizabeth Stapleton, dated 1688, by Samuel Carpenter of York. This comprises an inscribed tablet flanked by fronds with a winged base and shield with cherub heads above, supporting a life-sized bust in a segmental niche with pilastered surround, garlands and broken segmental pediment carrying a finial and carved lions.

Monuments in the north transept include black marble floor slabs to Matthew Boynton of 1705 and Elizabeth Boynton of 1729, both with carved arms in relief, and a marble wall tablet to Mathew Boynton of 1795 by I Fisher of York, with a carved pedestal and urn on an obelisk base. A wall tablet in the south aisle to children of Edward Russel, dated c1840, was made by W Bradley of Selby and features a carved urn.