Church Of St Egelwin The Martyr

Church of St Egelwin the Martyr

A parish church with 13th and 15th century origins, extensively modified and restored over the centuries. The tower was rebuilt in 1639, the chancel was rebuilt in 1845, and the entire building was restored in 1858 by the architects Millican and Smith.

The structure comprises a chancel, a south chancel chapel now serving as an organ chamber, an aisled nave, a south porch, and a west tower. It is built of coursed ironstone rubble and ashlar with limestone dressings, topped with a lead roof except for the chancel which has a Welsh slate roof.

The 2-bay chancel is constructed of ashlar and features a 4-light Perpendicular-style east window with a datestone of 1845 above it. The north and south walls of the chancel have 2-light windows with trefoil-headed lights, all with hood moulds. The chancel is strengthened by offset angle buttresses and buttresses between the south windows, and terminates in a stone-coped east gable with kneelers and a stone cross at the apex.

The former chancel chapel, now the organ chamber, continues the line of the north aisle and contains a 3-light east window with intersecting tracery and a 2-light north window with a 4-centred head and transom, both with hood moulds.

The nave features an impressive 5-window clerestory of 3-light windows with 4-centred heads, Perpendicular tracery, and hood moulds, beneath a battlemented parapet with crocketed pinnacles at the east angles.

The north aisle contains diverse window styles: a 3-light northeast window with intersecting tracery; a 3-light window in the middle of the north wall with pointed trefoil-headed side lights flanking a lancet-shaped central light; a 2-light northwest window with a quatrefoil head; and a 1-light west window with 19th century Decorated-style tracery.

The south aisle has a battlemented parapet and displays 3-light east and west windows with intersecting tracery. The south wall contains 2-light windows, the southeast example featuring a quatrefoil in a circle to the head, while the other two have encircled trefoils to their heads.

The south door has a continuous hollow chamfer as the outermost moulding, with shafts and a roll-moulded arch forming the inner frame.

The large south porch was formerly two-storied with a parvise. Its doorway features a continuous chamfer outermost and semi-circular responds with moulded capitals and a hood mould with label stops. Above the doorway, at 3 inches distance, are crocketed nodding ogee canopies with a continuous sill decorated with foliage. The porch is flanked by offset buttresses to the outer angles, which contain niches in their upper sections with crocketed nodding ogee canopies and pointed trefoils to the gablets above.

The three-stage west tower, rebuilt in 1639, has a moulded west door with a basket-arched head and hood mould. Above this is a 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery, a brattished transom, and hood mould. A datestone to the south side below the middle stage window displays a coat of arms and the date 1639. The middle stage has 2-light windows with Y tracery and ogee-arched hood moulds. The bell chamber contains paired 2-light openings with brattishing transoms and hood moulds. Offset clasping buttresses support the tower, and a cusped lozenge frieze runs along the base of the battlemented parapet, which features gargoyles and crocketed pinnacles at the angles.

Interior

The chancel arch is triple-chamfered with polygonal responds and capitals decorated with stiff-leaf foliage and carved heads between them. The nave contains five-bay arcades with circular piers set on circular abaci, semi-circular responds, double-chamfered arches, and capitals: the north arcade has stiff-leaf foliage capitals, while the south has moulded capitals.

The former north chancel chapel contains a trefoil-headed piscina. Two tomb recesses in the north aisle are decorated with ballflower ornament; the outermost is partly obscured by the polygonal respond of the arch between the aisle and chapel. The south aisle also has a trefoil-headed piscina.

A tall double-chamfered tower arch connects the nave to the tower, with a continuous outermost chamfer and polygonal responds within.

A circular 19th century font of alabaster and marble is decorated with terracotta plaques. A clock mechanism dated 1750 is mounted in the south aisle.

Monuments and Brasses

The church contains a brass of 1520 depicting a kneeling gentleman with an indent for his wife. A brass plaque in the chancel commemorates Elizabeth Bardsey, died 1624. The south aisle displays a brass plaque with a coat of arms in memory of Edward Darker, died 1651.