Church Of St Peter And St Paul

CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL

Healing, Stallingborough Road

Parish church with early 13th-century tower arch, 16th to 17th-century tower, and late medieval chancel built on earlier foundations. The nave dates to the 18th century, when the north aisle was removed (probably in the early 18th century) and the south aisle was removed in 1774. The building underwent major restoration in 1848-50, when a new west door was added and tracery in the west window was replaced. Further substantial restoration took place in 1874-76 by J Fowler of Louth, involving rebuilding of the nave north and east walls, insertion of a new chancel east window, reflooring, reseating, and reroofing. The chancel received interior renovation in 1947. A large unsympathetic church hall was added to the south side in 1976, incorporating a 1925 vestry on the south side of the tower; this later addition is of no special interest.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar to the tower, with limestone and ironstone ashlar to the nave and chancel. Roofs are of Welsh slate. The plan comprises a west tower, 2-bay nave, and single-bay chancel.

The 3-stage tower has a moulded plinth and angle buttresses with offsets, with stages divided by moulded string courses. The 19th-century pointed west door has 5 roll-moulded and filleted orders beneath a crocketed ogee hood, flanked by pinnacled buttress shafts, with Perpendicular-style blind-traceried panels. A pointed 3-light west window to the first stage retains its original hoodmould with restored tracery. The second stage contains square openings with pierced quatrefoils and incised spandrels in hollow-chamfered reveals. A line marking the former nave gable is visible on the east side. The belfry openings are pointed 2-light traceried openings with hoodmoulds. The tower is finished with angle gargoyles, a restored moulded string course, coped embattled parapet, and crocketed angle pinnacles.

The nave has a chamfered plinth with buttresses to the centre and east end, and pointed 2-light traceried windows; one on the south was converted to a door in 1976. The chancel features an ashlar wall tablet to Elizabeth Lamb of 1685 in the north wall, with a recessed inscribed panel flanked by scrolls. A 19th-century pointed 3-light east window with geometric tracery and hoodmould is present, and a medieval carved tread survives at the chancel gate.

Interior features include a pointed double-chamfered tower arch resting on triple-shafted responds. The responds comprise keeled central shafts flanked by smaller plain shafts, with plain moulded bases and capitals and octagonal abaci. A pointed double-chamfered chancel arch has a continuous outer chamfer and inner order on plain moulded corbels. A black marble floorslab in the tower commemorates Sir Francis Coventry, dated 1687, with a Latin marginal inscription. Wall tablets in the chancel record: Rev John Parkinson (1793); Rev John Parkinson (1837, with Latin inscription); Robert Parkinson (1822, with carved brackets, cornice and pediment); and Elizabeth Iles (1834, with carved brackets, moulded cornice and draped urn). The church contains 19th-century fittings and font.

Archaeological excavations in advance of building work on the south side in 1975 revealed foundations of a 13th-century south aisle that partly embraced the chancel, and evidence of a pre-Conquest church. Similarities with the towers at Aylesby and Immingham suggest a tower date between 1550-1650.