Church Of St Wystan

Church of St Wystan

This is a parish church with elements dating from the 9th century onwards, substantially rebuilt and altered in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, and restored in 1885–86 by Arthur Blomfield. The building comprises a west tower, aisled nave, and chancel. It is constructed of coursed rubble sandstone and ashlar, with plain tile and lead roofs.

The west tower rises in three unequal stages, divided by moulded stringcourses and sitting on a moulded plinth. It is buttressed at the angles. The west elevation features a doorway with a moulded mid-14th-century arch and hoodmould, above which is a three-light Perpendicular window with a castellated transom and hoodmould on headstops. A small trefoiled lancet sits above, with mid-14th-century two-light bell openings featuring a transom and ogee hoodmould. The south side displays a large circular clockface and similar bell openings; the north and east sides each have a small trefoiled lancet and comparable bell openings. The tower is topped with a quatrefoil frieze, castellated parapet, gargoyles, and four pinnacles, all supporting an octagonal stone spire with three tiers of lucarnes.

The north aisle is a lean-to structure of 13th-century date with a moulded parapet. A vestry with parapet adjoins it, lit by three and four-light mullioned windows and strengthened by angle buttresses and one intermediate buttress. The aisle windows, arranged from the west, include a single chamfered lancet, a doorway with colonnettes and moulded arch, an early 14th-century window with Y-tracery, a three-light window of stepped lancet lights, and another window with Y-tracery. A 15th-century clerestory with seven two-light windows of cusped four-centred arches under square heads runs above, crowned with a battlemented parapet. The north aisle's east window comprises three stepped lancet lights.

The south aisle dates to the 13th and early 14th centuries. It contains an east window of three stepped lancets and a single lancet to the west. A 15th-century two-storey gabled porch, with a moulded doorway whose hoodmould continues as a stringcourse, dominates the south elevation. Above the doorway is a crocketed and pinnacled niche flanked by two-light windows of cusped ogees under a flat arch, all supported by angle buttresses with pinnacles. A staircase projection to the west cuts into the aisle window. To the east is a two-light window of cusped lights under a flat arch. To the left of the porch is an early 14th-century window of three lancet lights, and to the right a similar four-light window and a window with Y-tracery. Further east, a lean-to south transept chapel features a plain moulded parapet, angle buttresses, a chimney in its north-west angle, a priest's doorway with moulded arch, and a four-light south window under a flat arch with curious cusped lozenge tracery, probably of 15th-century date. Its clerestory matches that of the north side.

The chancel is tall and unbuttressed, with a crypt beneath. Its lower walls display fine masonry, with the lowest courses forming a plinth of four steps. Two large projecting blocks on the south side suggest an external projection. A rectangular three-light 16th-century window lights the crypt. Between the lintels of these windows and the sill level of the 14th-century east window is a section of walling of roughly squared blocks of brown stone with massive flat quoins, which is unique to Repton. Above this, the masonry changes to smaller whitish blocks. A chamfered stringcourse is surmounted by lesenes ending in curious splayed capitals just below the eaves. A 13th-century north lancet and a similar 20th-century south lancet (incorporating fragments of a blocked original) flank the east window, which is a four-light window of plain lancets. A second lancet sits to the right on the north side.

Interior

The Anglo-Saxon crypt is accessed by two contemporary staircases from the aisles. It measures approximately 16 feet square and 10 feet high, comprising nine almost square bays roofed with domical vaults carried on cross-ribs. These spring from two pilasters on each wall and rest on four-centred columns. The columns have moulded bases, spiral fillets, and grooved capitals. The pilasters are decorated with blank arches. A double cornice runs along the north, south, and east walls. Each wall features a shallow recess, possibly for tombs. The western recess has a cornice above it and a partly filled-in triangular recess above that.

The south porch contains 15th-century plank doors with wrought iron hinges. The inner doorway has a flat arch and moulded surround, flanked by two free-standing 9th-century circular columns with capitals resembling those of the crypt pilasters. These columns originally stood at the east end of the nave arcades and were replaced in 1854. The nave arcades are early 14th-century work of six bays, with the eastern bays rebuilt in 1854. The piers are octagonal with moulded capitals and double chamfered arches, topped with a moulded hoodmould. The chancel arch is double chamfered and dies into the imposts. The tower arch features a triple chamfered order with moulded capitals to the inner order and a hoodmould on headstops. An earlier roofline is visible above the current roof. The south side of the chancel contains a large roughly cut piscina, and at the south-east angle of the nave is the upper rood doorway.

Monuments include a slate tablet (1802, by Stanley of Buxton) to Thomas Whitehead, who died in 1645 and set up a charity. A plain tablet of 1779 with swags commemorates the dead. In the south transept are monuments to George and Ellen Waklin (died 1617 and 1614 respectively), depicted facing each other across a prayer desk with their child below, and to John Macauley (died 1840) by Hall of Derby. In the south aisle is an incised alabaster slab to Gilbert Thacker (died 1563). In the north aisle are tablets to Reverend Joseph James (died 1856, by Hall) and William Bagshaw Stevens (died 1800, by E F Evans of Derby), along with a monument to Francis Thacker (died 1710) in the form of a heavy aedicule. A much-defaced incised slab is set into the floor. In the last bay of the nave is a tomb chest with an alabaster effigy of a knight, dating to circa 1400.

Furnishings include 18th-century communion rails with turned balusters and a Georgian-style dado in the chancel of 1935. The chancel has a plaster ceiling and cornice. 19th-century choir stalls are present, along with a brass eagle lectern of 1877 and Royal Arms over the south door dated 1772. A rich 19th-century octagonal font occupies the interior. Beneath the tower is a painted board displaying the table of tolls for Willington Bridge. The church retains good Perpendicular-style roofs and contains stained glass by Powells.