Church Of St Lawrence

Parish church located on Church Lane. The building comprises a three-bay aisled nave with a west tower, south porch, and two-bay chancel. The chancel and nave arcades date to the 13th century, with the south aisle added in the 14th century and the tower built in the 16th to 17th centuries. The church was re-seated in 1759. Significant 19th-century restorations included new aisle and chancel windows and re-roofing, with further restoration of the tower undertaken in 1939.

The fabric is constructed of ironstone ashlar with some squared chalk to the chancel, with limestone ashlar dressings throughout. The chancel is roofed with Westmorland slate, while the remainder has a plain tile roof.

The three-stage tower features a moulded plinth, angle buttresses with offsets, and moulded string courses between stages. The stair-lighting slits are positioned to the south-west. The first stage contains a pointed three-light west window with hollow-chamfered reveal, original hoodmould and 19th-century tracery. The second stage has square openings with pierced quatrefoils and incised spandrels in hollow-chamfered reveals. The belfry openings are pointed two-light designs with traceried heads and hoodmoulds, containing wooden louvres beneath pierced boards. Large angle gargoyles, a moulded string course, coped embattled parapet, and tall crocketed angle pinnacles with blind-traceried shifts complete the tower.

The aisles and chancel have chamfered plinths. Diagonal buttresses with offsets feature throughout, with additional buttresses positioned between the bays. The south aisle is lit by segmental-headed three-light windows with 19th-century tracery, heads and hoodmoulds. A 13th-century pointed three-light west window with intersecting tracery and hoodmould survives. The north aisle contains a pointed chamfered door and three-light north windows similar to the south aisle, plus a 19th-century pointed three-light west window with intersecting tracery and hoodmould. A pair of early 19th-century headstones is attached to the south-east buttress.

The chancel has diagonal buttresses with offsets. Its south side contains a pointed chamfered door and square-headed two- and three-light windows with 19th-century restored jambs, heads and mullions. The north side features a sill string course with a central raised rectangular panel and a square-headed three-light window with restored tracery, original hoodmould and a single headstop. A pointed three-light east window with restored head, tracery and hoodmould retains its original sill string course.

The south porch has diagonal buttresses with offsets, a pointed chamfered outer arch with a small trefoiled ogee niche above, and a coped gable with damaged cross finial. Square-headed two-light traceried side windows light the interior. Stone benches line the sides, and a late 14th-century pointed chamfered inner arch with hoodmould and large headstops marks the transition to the nave.

Interior

The arcades consist of pointed double-chamfered arches on cylindrical piers and shafted responds with plain moulded capitals and bases. The earlier south arcade features water-holding bases and seats around the piers (that to the east pier has been restored). The north arcade has plainer bases on square pedestals with narrower shafts to the responds; the eastern respond contains a crude attached pillar piscina with an octagonal bowl.

A tall double-chamfered tower arch with continuous outer chamfer and inner chamfer on shafted responds with plain moulded capitals and bases sits on tall pedestals with moulded plinths. A pointed door to the tower spiral staircase has a notched newel. The chancel arch is 19th-century work with pointed moulded profile and shafted responds.

The chancel contains a pair of pointed chamfered lancet-shaped niches flanking the east window. On its north wall is a 14th-century pointed wave-moulded recess with a segmental-pointed chamfered recess above. A small crude triangular-headed chamfered piscina appears on the south wall.

The church retains a complete set of fielded-panelled box pews in the nave, inscribed at the east end with "James Harrison, of Middle Rasen, Artificer" and "John Beatniffe, Minister, Richard Ostler, Churchwarden, 1759". A 13th-century cylindrical font with four angle-shafts survives.

Monuments include an early 14th-century effigy of a lady at the west end of the north aisle, with head on a tasselled pillow and feet on a damaged round. A worn grave slab at the east end of the nave commemorates John Martin, rector (died 1352), with marginal inscription. The chancel contains a marble wall tablet to Geoffrey Gray and others, dated 1788, and mid- to late 18th-century floor slabs with early to mid-19th-century wall tablets to the Ostler family in the north aisle.

The tower displays similarity to examples at Healing and Immingham. The notched newel of the staircase and the "mixed gothic" belfry tracery suggest a date between 1550 and 1650.