Church Of St Thomas A Becket

Church of St Thomas a Becket

A parish church of complex phasing, with late Anglo-Saxon or Norman origins, substantial early 14th-century work, and a Victorian restoration including the addition of a new chancel in 1857. The building is constructed of ironstone rubble with limestone dressings beneath Welsh slate roofs.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave with clerestory and south aisle, and chancel with south chancel aisle. The west tower has four stages. The lowest stage may be Anglo-Saxon in date, while the others are Norman. The lower stages are built of uncoursed rubble, the upper stages of coursed and squared stone. Thin pilaster buttresses flank the angles. The lowest stage contains a single round-headed light with flat hoodmould and a narrow doorway to the north with a tiny splayed window above. A decorated string course divides this from the second stage, which has paired round-arched lights with a central shaft decorated with chevron and supporting cushion capitals, all set beneath an outer round-headed arch. The bell chamber carries paired round-headed lights, the central mullion possibly cut through. A corbel table of heads of men and beasts runs beneath a flat parapet.

A Victorian coped gabled and buttressed porch shelters the south doorway, itself constructed in Romanesque style. The south door is of the 12th century, with single shafts and simple foliate capitals supporting a hollow chamfered and roll-moulded arch with outer hoodmould and label-stop masks. The aisle was virtually rebuilt in 1857 with buttresses and a sill course. Its windows are all Victorian renewals: those to the west are in the Decorated style, the others Perpendicular with stilted hood moulds. The clerestory carries paired square-headed lights, also with stilted hood moulds, in the Perpendicular style. A fragment of Saxon or Norman masonry from the main body of the church is visible in the south-east angle of the tower and south aisle. A round-arched 12th-century priests' door with nail-head decoration to its hoodmould has been resited in the chancel aisle. Four tombstones, alternately of stone and slate and dating to the 18th century, are built into the east wall of the aisle. The chancel east window contains heavily ornate Victorian tracery. The north wall of the chancel is partly constructed of limestone ashlar, while the north wall of the nave is very tall and features a continuous sill course. All window tracery is a Victorian renewal. A blocked 14th-century north door survives in the nave.

Internally, a small door provides access to the tower. The nave arcade comprises three bays with clustered shafts supporting double-chamfered arches of the 14th century. The Victorian nave roof has a tie beam and curved principal rafters linked by a collar. The chancel was restored in 1857 and its arch dates to this period, being accompanied by a delicately wrought wood screen. The chancel roof is of hammer-beam type.

The church houses a fine series of monuments. On the west wall of the nave, set high up, is a memorial to members of the Skipworth family, dating to around 1558, with long inscription flanked by columns and painted crests. A monument to Richard Neel, dated 1574, stands on the north wall of the nave. This features a coat of arms and epitaph flanked by three clustered Corinthian columns, the central one advanced, all capped by finials with further inscriptions and painted crests in the architrave. In the chancel is a wall memorial to Thomas Wilson, who died in 1699, and members of his family. Blocked and fluted shafts support the pediment and enclose the inscription, with a shield and scroll work positioned beneath.

The church contains a good series of 19th-century stained glass windows. The earliest, dating to 1853, is armorial glass in the east window of the chancel aisle. The chancel north and east windows date to 1856, and the south aisle window to 1862, depicting scenes from the life of Christ. The western aisle window, with scenes from the childhood of Christ, dates to 1873, and two north nave windows forming a pair were made in 1875.

The font is probably of the 14th century. It is a small octagonal basin with various emblems on each face.