Church Of St Benedict

Church of St Benedict

This is a parish church now in the care of the Redundant Churches fund, located on the west side of Church Lane in Haltham. The building spans several centuries of construction and alteration, from the early 12th century through the 15th century, with major restoration work undertaken in 1880 and 1891.

The church is built of squared greenstone coursed rubble with limestone ashlar dressings, supplemented by red brick patching and gables, and has slate roofs. It comprises a nave with a bellcote turret, chancel, south porch, and north aisle. A timber boarded belfry crowns the structure.

The west front displays a 14th-century door with wave moulded surround, later altered to a round head when a 15th-century three-light window was inserted above it. The rebuilt brick gable contains two re-set medieval stone heads. The north aisle's west wall has a two-light 15th-century window, while the north wall contains two further windows (a two-light and three-light) with cusped tracery. A blocked pointed doorway with a re-set head also appears in the north wall. On the nave's west end sits a low weatherboarded square belfry with single low pointed lights to the sides and a low pyramidal slate roof. A three-light window occupies the east wall of the aisle.

The chancel's north wall contains two blocked 14th-century ogee lights, beyond which stand single two- and three-light windows with cusped ogee heads. The 14th-century east chancel window is particularly elaborate: it has four lights with a thicker central mullion that bifurcates to form the arched tops of the pairs of lights and continues into curved mouchettes. The light heads contain cusped quatrefoils, and the whole window is set within a chamfered surround with moulded hood. The chancel's south wall features matching two- and three-light windows, an ogee-headed doorway, and two lower ogee lights. The nave's south wall displays a two-light late 13th-century window with Y tracery.

The 14th-century gabled south porch has stepped angle buttresses with crocketed pinnacles and a continuously moulded outer arch. The inner arch has chamfered reveals and a re-set early 12th-century round arched head, displaying three orders of roll moulding. The tympanum is carved with a Maltese cross enclosed in a circle, flanked by a fan-shaped shell to the left and a knot in a circle to the right, all set against a panel of diaper work.

Interior

The north arcade comprises two late 12th-century round-headed bays with octagonal piers, foliate capitals, and double chamfered arches. To the west is a further double chamfered pointed bay, probably 13th-century, with an annular respond. A 19th-century pointed chancel arch crosses above.

At the nave's west end stands a probably 15th-century square timber-framed belfry with curved braces and chamfered principals in two stages. Access to the bell chamber is provided by a possibly contemporary ladder. The framing has been repaired in later periods with diagonal stiffening members coach bolted to the earlier frame.

The chancel contains four statue brackets, a 14th-century angle piscina with two cusped ogee arches springing from an octagonal shaft, and an aumbry in the south wall.

Fittings

The church possesses an impressive collection of woodwork. Re-set elements of a 15th-century screen with cusped ogee arches and panel tracery are incorporated into two large family pews to the north and east sides of the north aisle. These pews are constructed primarily of 15th-century woodwork, featuring massive sleeper beams from which rise panels containing blank cusped ogee arches. Above these panels are paired lights, now with mullions replaced by later pendants, surmounted by pierced cusped heads and a coved and brattished cornice.

A panelled 18th-century pulpit has a tester, with seating in boxes below constructed from re-used 17th-century wainscotting. 19th-century pews incorporate re-used 16th-century ends and some back panels with foliate terminals. The sides of the belfry are planked; the lower parts were renewed in the 19th century, but above, a panel retains painted arms of Charles I and painted texts.

A 14th-century octagonal font features a shaped base, fleurons to the sides of the bowl, a moulded rim, and foliage decoration.