Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

This is a cruciform parish church of 12th-century origin with 13th-century arcades and predominantly 15th-century work. The building underwent significant alterations in 1872 by architect Thomas Jackson and restoration in 1882 by Edwin Dolby.

The church is constructed of pebble, rubble and ashlar limestone with lead and slate roofs. It comprises a five-bay aisled nave, a crossing tower and a three-bay chancel with flanking chapels. The external architecture is mostly Perpendicular in style, with embattled parapets and crocketed pinnacles except on the nave aisles.

The south aisle contains a rebuilt gabled porch to bays 2 and 3 with shafted jambs supporting a three-order pointed arch. Within this porch is a 12th-century inner door with a round arch and hood decorated with ball and billet ornament and head-carved stops; the original oak door retains E-shaped hinges. Bay 1 of the south aisle has a rubble-built wall with a west buttress and slit window. Bays 4 and 5 feature Decorated three-light windows, one containing mouchettes and the other with cusped intersecting tracery. The south aisle also has a doorway flanked by large buttresses, with a 12th-century four-order round arch with shafts and carved capitals; above is a transomed five-light Perpendicular window.

The north aisle features large 19th-century buttresses rising as gablets above the eaves. Bays 1, 3 and 4 have square-headed windows with two ogee lights; bay 2 has a window of three cusped lights; bay 5 contains a pointed three-light window with Decorated tracery. A small 12th-century west window also survives.

The clerestory is entirely 15th-century work, with panel-traceried three-light windows beneath two-centred arches; the hoodmoulds feature weathered head-carved stops.

The transepts have chamfered plinths and moulded bands, angle buttresses, and transomed five-light windows with panel tracery.

The tower has angle buttresses and hooded four-light pointed-arch windows beneath shields bearing the Savage arms. Two string courses run below paired two-light belfry openings with transoms; a clock is positioned between the south string courses.

The chancel chapels feature buttresses between bays and cusped square-headed three-light windows with hoodmoulds. The north chapel windows remain unrestored, with carved motifs on the merlons above. Three differing Perpendicular windows light the east end: the chancel window is transomed and uncusped, whilst the south chapel window has cusped panelling.

Internally, the 13th-century aisle arcades have cylindrical piers and matching responds supporting double-chamfered arches. The north aisle arcades spring from semi-octagonal responds built against the aisle piers and are also double-chamfered. A 15th-century nave roof spans above, featuring moulded tie beams and carved bosses.

Four richly-moulded arches open to the crossing, springing from semi-octagonal responds with crenellated capitals and supporting a 15th-century roof with a central boss.

The chancel contains south and north chapel arcades, each consisting of two double-chamfered arches on slender octagonal piers. Both have 15th-century roofs with restored eastern ends.

The church contains notable fittings including a 15th-century rood screen with slender one-light divisions and coving with lierne ribs and pendants; a matching restored screen survives in the north chapel. The font has a circa 1300 base with four shafts around a central column supporting a 19th-century octagonal bowl. Some pews to the west incorporate re-used work, including one with a traceried bench end. A benefactions tablet dated 1695 near the south door has a broken segmental pediment. Stained glass in the south aisle is by Kempe and Tower and Kempe. A 12th-century dug-out chest, iron-bound and originally fitted with ten locks, also survives.

The monuments are of considerable interest. In the south transept stands a restored wall monument to William Oughtibridge (died 1728) featuring a concentric inscription within a wreath of flowers and angels, signed by T. Oughtibridge, engraver. A plain table tomb with panelled sides occupies the north transept, and nearby piers display several early 18th-century cartouches. The south chapel contains a table tomb with shields in cusped lozenges and 18th and 19th-century wall monuments, including a broken-pedimented plaque to Mrs Judith Jackson (died 1728). The north chapel holds a standing monument to John Hatfield (died 1698) and a wall monument to the Hatfield family—John (died 1767), Susannah (died 1765) and others—set within the tori of an aedicule with a broken pediment beneath a flat obelisk with cartouche.