Church of St George

This Commissioners' Church, built predominantly in the Decorated Gothic style, was constructed between 1823 and 1827 to designs by William Parsons. The chancel was added in 1879 by Sir Arthur Blomfield, and the nave was rebuilt in 1912-14 by W. D. Caröe.

Materials and Construction

The church is built of sandstone ashlar with stone and cast-iron window tracery. The pitched roofs are clad in Welsh slate, except for the north slope of the nave which is covered in Swithland slate.

Plan

The church consists of a nave, north and south aisles, a west tower with porches on each side, and an east chancel flanked by a chapel on the south and a vestry and kitchen on the north.

Exterior

The church is large and impressive, predominantly in Decorated Gothic but with elements in the Perpendicular style. The aisles have a crenellated parapet and are divided into seven bays by gabled buttresses in three stages, the gables terminating in tiny carved medieval-style heads or foliage, whilst the top gable is surmounted by a Latin cross. Diagonal buttresses at the corners are surmounted by crocketed spire-like pinnacles. The tall pointed arch windows have three lights with cusped ogee heads in two stages, the upper stage having rectilinear tracery. The windows have a hollow moulded surround and a hoodmould with headstops in the form of medieval-style heads. All the window tracery in the aisles and tower is cast iron.

The three-stage west tower has panelled diagonal buttresses in three stages which have the same decorative treatment as the aisle buttresses, with the addition of crockets. It has a pierced parapet and four corner spire-like crocketed pinnacles. The elaborate Decorated doorway on the west front has four shafts with moulded bases and capitals. The pointed arch above has alternate rounds and deeply cut hollows with a crocketed ogee arch hoodmould. The panelled timber door is decorated with intricate Gothic tracery. The second stage is lit by a large pointed arch window which has four cinquefoil headed lights with a round multifoil in the window head, and a surround of alternating rounds and deeply cut hollows. The third stage has a round clock set in a panelled frieze. Above, there are twin ogee arch windows embellished with crockets and finials. They have Y-tracery and moulded and recessed surrounds similar to the other windows.

The porches on the north and south sides of the tower have crenellated parapets and corner buttresses surmounted by finials, with the same treatment as those on the tower. The doorway on the north and south side of the respective porches has a pointed arch surround with a single shaft and alternate rounds and hollows. The hoodmould has headstops in the form of human heads, and the double-leaf panelled timber door is embellished with Gothic motifs. The west side of both porches is lit by a two-light window in two stages with a crenellated transom and an upper stage and surround similar to the aisle windows. The east side of the aisles is lit by similar windows.

The chancel has a pitched roof with crenellated parapets on the north and south sides, and diagonal buttresses which are in three stages—the first and third are gabled, and the second has an offset. These are surmounted by fairly plain pinnacles, whilst those rising from the angle between the nave and chancel are crocketed. The large pointed arch east window has seven cusped lights with curvilinear tracery in the head. All the windows in the chancel have stone tracery.

The chancel is flanked by small projections: a chapel on the south side and vestry and kitchen on the north, both of similar design. They have a mono-pitched roof with moulded parapet, a diagonal buttress and a one-light cusped window on the east side. The south side of the south chapel is lit by a pair of cusped ogee arch two-light windows with a straight-headed hoodmould. The north projection, now used as a kitchen, has on the north side a similar three-light window followed by a pointed arch timber door with a chamfered surround and hoodmould. Between this and the nave is the double-height gabled vestry with organ loft which is lit at ground-floor level by another straight-headed three-light window, and above by a tall pointed arch window with two cusped lights and hoodmould. There is a small, flat-roofed 20th-century extension in red brick in front of the ground-floor window.

Interior

The seven-bay nave, rebuilt in 1912-14, has tall piers which give a marked sense of height now that the galleries are no longer in place. The round piers, which have fillets and rest on broached bases, rise to form an arcade of pointed, moulded arches. Some of the piers are embellished with cusped or ogee arch canopied niches with sculpted religious figures, and one has a series of square panels with carved religious symbols. The nave and aisles have timber-clad ceilings with decorative timber trusses. The moulded tie-beams across the nave, which have spandrels pierced with cusped panels and carved bosses, rest on stone corbels carved in the form of angels.

The principal doorway at the west end of the nave is quite spectacular in its size and decoration. The moulded and chamfered stone surround has foliate capitals and the soffit and jambs are carved with trefoil arch panels. The doorway is almost completely filled by the tall timber screen and incorporated door, installed in 1912-14, which is covered with intricately carved Gothic panels and is surmounted by brattishing. A cantilevered timber beam projects from the top of the screen to support the mechanism for lifting the cover off the highly elaborate font below. The west doorway is flanked by prominent arched doorways to the north and south porches which have moulded stone surrounds with carved spandrels, panelled jambs and double-leaf timber panelled doors.

At the east end the large moulded chancel arch has been fitted with a modern timber painted screen, which is not of special interest. The timber-clad chancel roof has pseudo-hammerbeam trusses, resting on stone carved corbels, and wind braces. The marble altar is located against the east wall on a raised floor laid in black and pale grey marble. Above, the stained glass east window is flanked by the remnants of wall paintings depicting religious symbols, vines and other stylised foliage. On the right side of the altar, built into the south wall of the chancel, is a cusped ogee arched stone piscina.

The north wall of the chancel is pierced by a tall stone archway containing the large timber panelled organ loft in which the organ player is accommodated in a balcony with pierced cusped panels. To the right of this are two stone archways, the first of which gives access through a timber door to the vestry and the second of which is blind. On the opposite south wall of the chancel are three moulded stone archways: the left one has blind tracery, and the other two are fitted with richly carved pierced timber screens with brattishing. The middle screen contains a doorway giving access to the south chapel but this has been boarded over and the chapel now has an inserted pitched ceiling.

Furniture and Fittings

The fitted plain timber pews in the nave and aisles, probably installed in 1912-14, have boarded backs and simple panelled rectangular bench-ends. At the west end of the nave, the font, dating to 1865, has an octagonal bowl with alternating buttresses and triangular canopies containing Gothic motifs, which rests on an octagonal stem carved with blind tracery. The timber cover is in the form of a crocketed spire with pinnacled flying buttresses, the detail of which is picked out in red, green and gold.

Equally elaborate is the timber pulpit, dating to 1912-14, which is located at the east end of the nave. It has a hexagonal drum resting on four square legs which is reached via a flight of steps, all richly carved with blind tracery, vines and other stylised foliage. The four-seat timber sedilia in the chancel is similarly decorated and probably dates to the same period.

The stained glass in the west window of the tower, depicting four saints, is thought to have been made by Ward & Nixon around 1835, making it the oldest 19th-century stained glass in the county.