Church Of St Mary And St Hardulph

Church of St Mary and St Hardulph, Breedon-on-the-Hill

This parish church was formerly the church of an Augustinian Priory founded in the early 12th century. The building incorporates carved masonry of 9th-century date from a monastic foundation that previously occupied the site. The west tower dates partly to the early 12th century but was raised in the 14th and 15th centuries. The 13th-century aisled chancel now serves as the nave and features 14th-century fenestration to north and south, with a 15th-century clerestory. The south porch incorporates some remains of the 13th-century transept but has been substantially altered. The church underwent major repairs in 1784 by Joseph Wyatt and again in 1900, when the interior was stripped of plaster and the east windows of the chancel were renewed.

The building is constructed in ashlar with lead roofs. The west tower rises in three stages and is topped with a battlemented parapet, carved gargoyles and slender clasping buttresses. The bell-chamber features 14th and 15th-century two-light traceried openings with transoms, whilst small 15th-century two-light traceried windows with flat heads occupy the north and south faces below the bell-chamber. A window serves the south-west stairs. The lower stages of the tower show traces of roof-lines of the former nave and transepts and are largely rebuilt in rubble stone. The west side contains a blocked 12th-century arch to the former nave with moulded imposts, and a fragmentary respond of a non-aligned 15th-century nave arcade at the centre, featuring a chamfered pier with attached semi-octagonal shaft and capital. Also visible in the west wall are a 12th-century window with a semicircular chevron arch on shafts, and a 19th-century window with Y tracery. The north side of the tower has irregular arched single lights and a small 12th-century doorway with a semicircular chevron arch on shafts and a later inner order with moulded roundels.

South of the tower stands a gabled porch with narrow flanking gables and the head of a three-light traceried window above a 19th or 20th-century door. The present nave displays a four-bay 15th-century clerestory with a battlemented parapet and two-light traceried windows; those to the north feature ogee tracery, whilst those to the south have trefoil-headed lights. The aisles have large irregular buttresses, moulded plinths, sill strings and dripmoulds. The north aisle has a moulded parapet and a 13th-century lancet in the west bay above a blocked doorway with a two-centred arch and roll-moulding; the lancet features an ogee wooden transom. The three remaining bays contain large 14th-century three-light windows with various tracery designs: the east bay has a flatter arch, the centre bay has renewed tracery. The south aisle has a battlemented parapet with three bays of large early 14th-century windows featuring intersecting tracery, and another arched two-light window to the left. The second bay contains a blocked 15th or 16th-century doorway with a moulded four-centred arch and hoodmould. Thirteen-century lancet windows occupy the east ends of both aisles. The main east window comprises a group of three lancets with a cusped roundel above, all renewed in 1900; all lancets have deeply chamfered surrounds.

Internally, the south porch contains altered jambs of a large archway to the south, a 19th or 20th-century four-centred doorway to the tower, and two blocked doorways in the east wall, one Transitional in style with nailhead and roll-mouldings to the arch and clustered shafts. The arch between tower and nave is triple-chamfered. The nave arcades consist of four bays and are renewed late 18th-century work, featuring double-chamfered arches on variously-shaped quatrefoil piers. The aisles have small chamfered doorways in angled west corners. The north aisle retains 13th-century groin vaulting and a west doorway with roll-moulding. The south aisle and nave were re-roofed in the late 18th century.

The south aisle east wall and spandrels of the nave arcades display narrow stone friezes with Saxon carvings of interlace ornament and grotesque beasts; three similar lengths of frieze appear in the tower. At the east end of the south aisle is a central arched panel carved with a figure of the Virgin, flanked by triple arcaded panels with smaller figures of saints. Two additional saints appear in arches, and other figurative panels occupy the south wall. A larger panel with a figure of the archangel Gabriel is located in the tower. All these carvings are of very high quality.

The church contains three carved shafts of 9th or 10th-century stone crosses in the north aisle. A Shirley family pew, dated 1627, is part-balustraded with strapwork and heraldic crests, corner obelisks, carved foliage, a frieze and modillion cornice with winged angel heads. Late 18th-century box pews, a pulpit and west gallery are present, along with late 17th or 18th-century turned baluster altar rails and a chair in the south chapel. The south chapel retains 17th-century carved panels in its dado. An octagonal stone font with heraldic panels stands in the church. The east end of the north aisle features iron railings and three fine marble monuments to members of the Shirley family: a tomb-chest for Francis Shirley and his wife (1571) with carved figures holding shields to the sides of the chest; a tomb-chest for John Shirley (late 16th century); and a large wall monument to George and Frances Shirley (1598) with carved kneeling figures and a skeleton below.