Church Of St Edward King And Martyr

Church of St Edward, King and Martyr

This parish church dates from the early 13th century, with the aisles widened in the 14th century, the tower raised and given a spire in the late 14th century, and a clerestory added in the 15th century. The building was very substantially restored in 1876–77 by William Smith of the Adelphi, London, with the chancel further restored in 1902. The fabric is dressed stone with lead roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, aisled nave, south porch, and chancel. It features moulded plinths and battlemented parapets throughout.

The west tower rises in three stages and is topped with a tall octagonal spire, part of which was rebuilt in the late 18th century. The spire has two tiers of lucarnes. The tower has angle buttresses, slit windows to the south-west stairs, and some carved head gargoyles. The bell-chamber contains two-light traceried openings, with 13th-century lancets below.

The nave has a late 15th-century clerestory of four bays with paired cusped lights in rectangular surrounds. The north aisle, dating from the 14th century, has restored Decorated windows with reticulated tracery: a two-light window to the west, two two-light windows to the north, and a three-light window to the north and east of the east bay. A north door sits within a moulded two-centred arch, and the aisle has offset buttresses.

The south aisle is slightly earlier in date and features a keeled sill string with carved heads below the parapet. Offset buttresses, two of which have corbel stands in gabled arched niches, support the wall. Five bays contain two-light traceried windows with carved head hoodmould stops, while the east bay has a similar three-light window. The west window and those to the east bay have shafts. The south door is richly moulded in a two-centred arch, much restored, with pairs of shafts to each jamb.

The south porch dates from the 15th century and is much restored. It has a moulded two-centred arch and 16th–17th-century two-light side windows with ovolo mullions.

The chancel has a chamfered sill string and dripmould. Its south side shows two bays of lancets, with two-light Y-traceried windows to the east bay. A partly blocked rectangular lowside window with transom survives on the south side, alongside a later door in a chamfered surround. The north side has a blocked door with a four-centred head. The five-light east window dates from 1902 and is in Perpendicular style.

Interior

The tower arch is triple-chamfered with inner orders on semi-octagonal piers with moulded caps. The nave has four-bay arcades: the south arcade features double-chamfered arches on cylindrical piers with moulded and carved capitals, two of which have dog-tooth ornament; the north arcade is chamfered and hollow-chamfered, carried on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. Stone carved head corbels above both arcades mark the position of the former roof. The present roof dates from the 16th–17th century and has been part restored; it features moulded cambered tie beams with carved bosses. The aisle roofs are similar in design.

The north aisle retains remains of stairs to the rood. The south aisle has shafted window jambs, a cusped arched piscina, and a pair of arched niches, much restored, with shafts, carved capitals, and carved head stops to the label. Squints open towards both the chancel and nave.

The chancel arch is triple-chamfered on corbels. Within the chancel, the north wall holds a blocked door with roll moulding and a fine 14th-century tomb recess with moulded and cusped arch, containing a carved stone effigy of a priest, dating to around 1330, beneath an ogee canopy. The south wall has 13th-century triple arched sedilia with shafts and a chamfered arched piscina.

Fittings include a 15th-century octagonal stone font with heraldic panels, a 17th-century chest with carved panels, and a pulpit assembled in the 1870s from re-used alabaster slabs bearing inscriptions and incised figures on their inner faces. Other fittings date from the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Monuments

In the south aisle stands a stone tomb chest with corner shafts and brasses depicting Robert Staunton and his wife Agnes, who died in 1458, beneath crocketed ogee canopies. The north aisle contains a very fine alabaster tomb chest carved with the effigies of Robert Hazylrygg, who died in 1529, and his wife. The sides of the chest are carved with cusped semi-circular arcades containing relief figures of shield-bearing angels and seated bedesmen.