Church Of St Thomas A Beckett

Church of St Thomas a Beckett

A church of mixed date, with parts of the fabric surviving from the late 13th century, though it was almost entirely rebuilt in 1860 in the style of the original building, adopting late Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic. The structure is built of coursed ironstone rubble with limestone dressings.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave with two aisles and clerestory, chancel, and north chancel chapel. The three-stage buttressed tower features paired foiled lights to the bell-chamber and an embattled parapet with crocketted finials at the angles. A three-light Perpendicular west window lights the tower interior. The south aisle is entered through a Victorian porch with a hollow chamfered arch and paired quatrefoils in the east and west walls. Low gates to the porch, dating from around 1860, are of latticed woodwork with a pierced quatrefoil in each small lozenge-shaped panel. The south door is also Victorian, with a chamfered and shafted archway and hood mould.

The aisle windows feature three lights with heavily cut Victorian tracery in late Decorated style. The clerestory carries paired lights in Decorated style with hood moulds. Both south and north aisles have parapets and moulded eaves cornices. The south chancel windows follow a similar pattern, though the five-light east window is a more accomplished piece of Victorian work, with intricate and delicate tracery. The chancel has an eaves cornice to its coped gable, which is capped by a cross finial.

The north chancel chapel is Perpendicular in style and appears to have escaped restoration. It has a chamfered four-centred arched doorway, two three-light windows to the north (one blocked), a five-light window to the east, and a three-light Perpendicular window to the west with an elegantly curved hood mould.

Interior

The west tower arch is double chamfered with octagonal responds. The nave of four bays contains an arcade dating from around 1300, comprising slender octagonal piers with capitals and double chamfered arches with outer hood moulds supported on large corbel heads. The nave roof, installed in 1860, features cambered trusses with corbel heads. The aisle roofs are of the same date, combining lean-to roofs and symmetrical cambered trusses with decorated spandrels. A blank ogee archway in the east wall of the south aisle probably once connected with a former rood loft. The chancel arch has paired rounded shafts with roll-moulded capitals. A blocked door to the rood loft remains visible to the south.

The two-bay arcade to the north chapel features octagonal piers. The chancel fittings date from the 1860 restoration and include a traceried stone and marble reredos, ornate wood screens to the north chancel chapel, heavily carved stalls, and altar rails. The north chancel chapel, now used as the vestry, contains several Skeffington family tombs. One tomb, to Sir Thomas Skeffington (died 1600), Isabella his wife, and four children, displays kneeling marble effigies in a recess with an inscription tablet behind, though this may not be its original location. Another recess holds the memorial to William Skeffington (died 1559), a formal composition with arms and heraldic emblems. Above it stands the wall tomb of John Skeffington (died 1652), where angels draw back a curtain from an inscription tablet, with arms and scrolls above.

Fragments of richly coloured medieval glass survive in the east window of the chapel. One north window of the chapel and the chancel east window contain glass by Wailes. The Victorian font has an octagonal bowl and base with emblems of the evangelists on the panels and an ornate wood pyramidal cover.