Church Of St Hybald

Church of St Hybald

This parish church combines a medieval tower dating from the 13th to 15th centuries with a comprehensive reconstruction undertaken in 1842–43 by architect W A Nicholson, who rebuilt the west tower entrance, nave, aisles and chancel in 13th-century style. The design was subsequently altered in the 1870s by James Fowler of Louth.

The tower is constructed of squared limestone and rubble with galleted joints and ashlar dressings, topped by a coped embattled parapet. The remainder of the church is built in dressed limestone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. The tower comprises two stages: the lower stage has quoins, a moulded plinth, diagonal buttresses with offsets, and features an inserted pointed shafted door with hood-mould and a shafted lancet above. Original round-headed single-light windows survive on the west and south sides with monolithic heads and a moulded string course. The stepped-in upper stage has 4-centred arch 2-light cinquefoiled belfry openings with hood-moulds. A moulded string course runs beneath, punctuated by pairs of gargoyles to north and south.

The church plan comprises a 5-bay aisled nave with 3-bay arcades, a south porch, and a 3-bay chancel. A chamfered plinth, pilaster buttresses and corbel-table run across the nave, aisles and chancel. The clerestory features lancets; the aisles have shafted lancets with hood-moulds. A pointed shafted door opens to the south, while the chancel has shafted twin east lancets with hood-mould. The south porch has a pointed chamfered outer arch with hood-mould and headstops, and a pointed chamfered inner arch.

Interior

The nave arcades consist of pointed double-chamfered arches with hood-moulds, carried on octagonal piers and keeled responds with engaged shafts and moulded capitals (bases are obscured by flooring). The tower opens directly into the nave and is fitted with a panelled organ-gallery front bearing a good 19th-century painted cast-metal coat of arms. The chancel arch is double-chamfered with filleted responds and engaged shafts. The shafted east window carries a hood-mould and headstops. The chancel roof comprises a 3-bay single hammer-beam structure; the nave roof is a 5-bay king-post design.

Monuments and Fittings

The chancel contains several significant monuments. On the south side, a wall monument to Richard Nelthorpe and his wife Ursula, dating to around 1640 and attributed to the Marshall workshop, displays life-sized busts in round-arched niches above an inscription panel. Below are six miniature figures (two damaged) of mourning children holding skulls, flanked by scrolled brackets and columns supporting an entablature and carved achievement in ornate strapwork. A wall tablet commemorates John Nelthorpe (1669), transferred from the Church of St James, Clerkenwell, featuring a scrolled bracket and festooned base with the inscription flanked by Ionic columns carrying an entablature with pulvinated frieze, moulded cornice and scrolled pediment bearing a cartouche with arms. A monument to Edward and Richard Nelthorpe (1788), by Fisher of York, has an obelisk base with inscription in a fluted surround, festooned pedestal and draped urn. On the north side, a tablet to Sir Henry Nelthorpe (1830), by George Earle Jun of Hull, features a draped altar, palm fronds, scrolled pediment and arms. A black marble floor-slab commemorates Frances Nelthorpe (1720).

The north aisle contains tablets to Amaziah Empson, vicar (1798), by Fisher of York, with obelisk base, foliate frieze, draped urn and arms, and to Elizabeth Moore (1797) with good lettering. 19th-century tablets occupy the south aisle. Four 18th-century and later hatchments are displayed above the wall monuments in the chancel. Good late 19th-century wrought-iron altar rails by Mark Horton of Lea are a notable feature. A plain 19th-century octagonal font rests on a shafted column base.

Historical Documentation

Drawings by C Nattes from 1795 are held in the Banks Collection at Lincoln City Library.