Church Of St Botolph

The Church of St Botolph is a Grade II* listed building located in Ratcliffe on the Wreake. It dates back to the 14th century, with the spire being rebuilt in 1812 and the church restored in 1876. The structure is made of granite rubble stone with stone dressings, an ashlar spire, and roofs covered in Swithland slate. It features stone-coped gables and consists of a west tower, nave, chancel, and south porch.

The west tower has two stages, short diagonal buttresses, a west window with 19th-century stained glass, a north door, a clock face on the north side, three 2-light bell openings, gargoyles, battlements, and a tall crocketted needle spire with two tiers of lucarnes. The nave is supported by stepped buttresses. Inside, there is a triple chamfered nave arch on polygonal responds, and a four-bay north arcade on octagonal piers, which was blocked when the north aisle was demolished around 1800. The north side has three windows, two featuring Y tracery and one with intersected tracery. The south side has three windows with geometric tracery. The 19th-century four-bay roof has curved braces and wall pieces resting on stone corbels.

The chancel arch is double chamfered and also on polygonal responds. The early 14th-century chancel has two north windows with geometric tracery, an east window with reticulated tracery and 1878 stained glass, and three south windows with geometric or curvilinear tracery. The middle south window contains fragments of medieval glass, including grisaille quarries. There is a north door and a north tomb recess with a double chamfered arch and an effigy of a priest from around 1300, with the head under a crocketted gable. The chancel also includes a piscina and triple sedilia, with a 19th-century three-bay roof similar to that of the nave. A round font from the 12th or 13th century is set on a likely 19th-century octagonal base. The south porch was rebuilt in 1967.