Church Of St Wilfrid

Church of St Wilfrid

Parish church of St Wilfrid stands on Church Road in the parish of Egginton. The building is principally of the 14th century, with significant additions and modifications in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. It underwent restoration in 1891 by the architects Evans & Jolly. The church is constructed of coursed, squared sandstone with sandstone dressings, and features lead and plain tile roofs with stone coped gables and a chamfered plinth.

The church comprises a west tower of three stages, a nave with aisles, a chancel, and a north vestry. The west tower is divided into three stages by chamfered string courses and is buttressed to the west by diagonal buttresses with five set-offs. It is topped with battlements, gargoyles, and four plain pinnacles. The west elevation displays a blocked pointed arched doorway with impost blocks, and above it a three-light Perpendicular window with cusped tracery. A staircase in the south-west angle has an arrow slit window opening to west and south, with a small square opening also on the south side. The north side contains a 20th-century brick lean-to boiler house of no special interest and a small rectangular opening. Two-light bell openings with cusped Y-tracery are set in each direction.

The south aisle has a lean-to roof with a west window of three plain arched lights, likely of the 16th century. Angle buttresses strengthen the south aisle. A 14th-century doorway on the south side features a deeply moulded arch and hoodmould on head stops. To its right are a 16th-century four-light window of plain four-centred arched lights, a 17th-century three-light window with recessed and chamfered mullions, and another 16th-century four-light window. The south aisle's east window dates to around 1300 and has three lights with intersecting tracery.

The chancel has a steeply pitched roof. To the south is a double-chamfered priests' doorway of around 1300 with hoodmould on head stops, flanked by two-light windows with Y-tracery. To the left is a small rectangular window with chamfered surround set low down. The east elevation has angle buttresses and a 19th-century east window of five plain lancet lights. The north side of the chancel has one two-light window with Y-tracery.

The vestry has a flat roof with a plain parapet and a low broad window with Y-tracery to the north. The organ chamber to its right is taller and has a battlemented parapet with a two-light window of Y-tracery. The north aisle is battlemented, with a small lancet set high up to the east. To the north are two windows with Y-tracery, renewed in the 19th century. A plain pointed arched north doorway with slight chamfer and a studded plank door stands on the north side, with angle buttresses and a single trefoil-headed west lancet.

Interior

The three-bay north arcade features circular piers and abaci with polygonal west respond and corbelled east respond, all carrying double-chamfered arches. The three-bay south arcade has quatrefoil piers and abaci with semi-circular responds and double-chamfered arches. The tower arch has a convex moulding without capitals. The chancel arch is double-chamfered on polygonal responds.

The north aisle contains a three-light Perpendicular east window now set within the building. The clerestory, now internal, has two plain rectangular openings to the north and three plain two-light mullion windows to the south. In the south aisle are two low segment pointed tomb recesses, one containing a damaged effigy. The south-east corner holds a sedilia, piscina, and aumbry, together with an ex situ head corbel. The chancel has a trefoil-headed sedilia and piscina, with an aumbry to the north.

Monuments include a work to Frences Every and Dame Vere Every dating to around 1690, featuring a blank medallion with a white frontal bust with cheek propped on hand. A monument to members of the Every family of around 1701 takes the form of a Tuscan Doric columned aedicule with achievement of arms above. Several plain 17th-century tablets by Hall are present, along with three 18th-century slate headstones set into the south aisle wall. A tablet to Gertrude Flower Every (died 1858) is also by Hall and stands in the south aisle.

The church contains Painted Royal Arms over the chancel arch. Under the tower stands a 19th-century octagonal font. Painted lozenge hatchments are set under the tower and in the south aisle. A Jacobean pulpit, communion rail with turned balusters, and a painted altar piece with a copy of a Murillo painting of the Virgin and Child with the young St John the Baptist dated 1833 are also present.

The stained glass includes a two-light south window of around 1888 by Cox & Buckley of London. Considerable fragments of 13th-century and later glass have been re-set in the east window.