Church Of St Cuthbert

Church of St Cuthbert

Parish church located on Church Lane, Doveridge. The building dates from the late 12th century through to the 15th century, with major restorations undertaken in 1840 and 1869.

The church is constructed of sandstone ashlar with a Welsh slate roof to the south aisle and lead roofs with coped gables elsewhere. It comprises a west steeple, a clerestoried nave with aisles, and a chancel.

The exterior features a chamfered plinth and plain parapets to the clerestory and aisles. The west tower rises in three stages with clasping buttresses, its lower section dating from the late 12th century but remodelled and raised during the 13th century. A 14th-century ashlar spire sits above, decorated with one tier of lucarnes. The 13th-century west doorway has one order of colonettes, with two closely spaced lancet lights above under a single dogtooth hoodmould. To the south is a single narrow lancet, coupled lancets above under a single dogtooth hoodmould, and a small lancet higher still. A similar arrangement appears to the north.

The north aisle displays a Decorated west window of two cusped ogee lights with hoodmould, and a low double-chamfered north door now enclosed in a circa 1980 corridor leading to the church hall (not of listable quality). To the left are two 2-light Decorated windows similar to the west window, separated by a buttress. An angle buttress and 3-light east window with reticulated tracery follow. All windows have deep outer chamfers. The south aisle has a 2-light west window of two cusped lancets with mouchettes and quatrefoil, with hoodmould and head stops. A single chamfered doorway with hoodmould and head stops opens from the south side, fitted with 20th-century doors. Two Decorated windows flank a buttress, mirroring the north side arrangement. An angle buttress and 3-light east window with renewed reticulated tracery complete the elevation.

The clerestory features four 3-light windows on the south side; the easternmost has a segmental head with crudely trefoiled lights, while the others have plain mullions under flat arches. The north side has two similar windows, one plain and one matching the easternmost south window. The tall chancel displays a blind clerestory. Its north side contains five tall, double-chamfered lancets, partly recut, with hoodmould continuing as a string course. A heavy string course runs at sill level above the plinth and beneath the clerestory. One heavy 19th-century buttress, corner buttresses, and two lower buttresses provide support. The south side features three similar lancets from the east, a priests' doorway with filleted roll moulding and hoodmould, and a tall 2-light 14th-century window with almost triangular-headed cusped lights under one segmental head. Four string courses match those on the north. Two large buttresses and two smaller ones are positioned here. A large 5-light Perpendicular east window with panel tracery, much renewed, is flanked by buttresses. Beneath it stands a wall tablet to Katherine Wall (died 1713) with a metal inscription plate bearing a coat of arms and classical stone aedicule.

The interior contains a four-bay south arcade and three-bay north arcade with octagonal piers and capitals and double-chamfered arches; the capitals all appear recut. Evidence of an earlier clerestory survives in the south aisle. The low tower arch is double-chamfered, with the inner order on corbels; the southern order bears a head and nailhead decoration. There is no chancel arch; the nave and chancel continue uninterrupted beneath a continuous moulded hoodmould over the windows and string course. The 15th-century nave and chancel roof features arch-braced tie beams with moulded principal rafters and purlins. The north side of the chancel contains a tomb recess with a moulded arch. Before it lies a brass surround to Ralph Okeover (died 1487). To the right are two aumbrys, one with an early 19th-century door. A double piscina on the south side features an octagonal colonette and moulded arches, dating to the 13th century.

The right-hand arch is intersected by a large wall monument to William Davenport and his wife (died 1640 and 1639), showing free-standing figures facing each other across a prayer desk, with an architectural surround, three praying children below, and a child in a cot. Further monuments include one to Arabella Cavendish (died 1739) with a bold surround and gadrooning frieze along the bottom; Henry Cavendish (died 1698) with bolection moulded surround; Francis Cavendish (died 1650) with a tablet framed by paired columns and round-arched pediment; and Rev. John Fitzherbert (died 1785) with a tablet surmounted by an urn against a slate obelisk. A small brass to the left of the aumbrys commemorates Francis Cavendish (died 1650). Rev. Thomas Cavendish (died 1859) is remembered by a tablet inscribed by C Maile Sc of London. The south aisle contains a wall monument to Thomas Milward (died 1658) with crudely carved figures holding back curtains from the tablet. An incised alabaster slab to a priest dates from the 14th century and is located in the north aisle.

A probable 17th-century chest stands in the chancel. The stained glass includes two lancets in the chancel south (circa 1924) by Kempe and Tower, glass of the 1860s possibly by Clayton and Bell in the north windows, two windows in the north aisle (1960) by Patrick Nuttgens, and jumbled fragments of 15th-century glass in the south aisle west window. The font has a circular bowl on a cluster of shafts, probably 13th century but completely recut, with an 18th-century cover. Three 18th-century hatchments hang in the chancel north. The church contains 19th-century woodwork.