Church Of St Mary And St Lawrence

Church of St Mary and St Lawrence

Parish church on the high street of Old Bolsover. The building dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, with major additions in 1624 and substantial restoration work by L. Ambler in 1897 following fire damage in 1961-2.

The exterior is built in coursed squared limestone with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roofs. A west tower of two stages divides the building vertically with a string course. The tower is square, with a staircase projection to the south west. The west doorway has double chamfering and one order of colonettes, with a single chamfered lancet above. The lower stage is blind to north and south, while the upper stage contains two-light bell-openings formed of plain lancets under a single hoodmould. The tower is crowned with a stone broach spire featuring two tiers of lucarnes, each a single louvred lancet, the upper ones gabletted. The building features moulded coped gables with plain kneelers and moulded coped parapets, and a moulded plinth throughout.

The nave is aisled with a south chapel and chancel. The gabled north aisle has a 19th-century three-light west window with cusped intersecting tracery and hoodmould on headstops. A gabled north porch with gabletted buttresses and moulded doorway contains rectangular windows with cusped ogee lights on either side. The north aisle comprises three bays divided by buttresses with two set-offs, each containing three-light windows with cusped tracery featuring an encircled trefoil and hoodmould. A slightly projecting gabled transeptal bay to the left has a similar three-light window. The vestry, built in 1961-2 by Taylor, Young & Partners, is an octagonal two-storey block resembling a chapter house with mullioned and cross windows.

The chancel's north side contains a two-light 19th-century window with cusping and trefoils, while the east end features a five-light window with Geometrical tracery. The south side of the chancel has a single buttress flanked by two-light windows matching the north side, with a flat-arched doorway between them. Above this doorway is a round-arched tympanum with a moulded arch and a sculptured Crucifixion. A restored round-arched lancet stands to the left.

The Cavendish chapel, a rectangular projecting structure built in 1624, features a castellated parapet and string course above the second tier of windows. The ground floor contains a three-light mullioned and transomed window with returned hoodmould, with a single light and three-light recessed and chamfered mullion window above. The south elevation is blind with a parapet inscribed "CAVENDO VTVS" and a square sundial below.

The gabled south aisle comprises three bays divided by buttresses with two set-offs, featuring three-light windows with 19th-century Geometrical tracery and hoodmould with foliage stops. A large three-light west window has cusped intersecting tracery.

The interior contains four-bay arcades (the fourth bay on the south side was blocked when the Cavendish chapel was added). The arcades feature octagonal piers with moulded octagonal capitals and moulded arches. A moulded chancel arch has filletted responds and capitals with naturalistic foliage continued as a band. Double-chamfered arches on semi-octagonal responds connect the north transept, chancel, and north aisle. A keyed round arch leads from the south aisle into the Cavendish chapel, which contains a Jacobean-style roof.

The chapel houses two major monuments. A standing wall monument against the south wall commemorates Charles Cavendish (died 1617) and features a pair of recumbent effigies with kneeling children in the predella, a coffered arch, and a rich strapwork cartouche. A marble reredos-type monument erected in 1727 commemorates Henry Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, his wife, and one of his daughters. It features a large black sarcophagus between coupled Corinthian columns supporting a pediment, with two allegorical figures lying on top. The monument was designed by Gibbs and sculpted by Francis Bird. The east wall displays a 19th-century stone monument in Perpendicular style with three canopies and inset brass inscription panels to three members of the Cavendish Bentinck family (died 1858, 1877, and 1893). An inscribed tomb slab at the east end of the south aisle commemorates Huntingdon Smithson (died 1648) and John Smithson (died 1716).

The painted roofs throughout the building date from the 1960s, with the nave featuring four-light mullioned clerestory windows. The north transept baptistry contains a richly decorated 19th-century octagonal font with a painted cover. Sculpture set on a modern base includes a late 13th-century relief of the Nativity. A grave cover carved with an axe, shears, sickle, and ring is present, along with a painted stone reredos. The church contains various re-used 19th-century furnishings, including a brass eagle lectern. Six re-set corbels are located in the blocked south aisle bay, and remains of two foliated grave covers stand in the north porch.