Church Of St Edith

Church of St Edith

Parish church of 13th-century origin with significant additions and alterations spanning the early and late 14th century, 15th century, 16th century, and later restorations in 1878 and 1890. The church is constructed of coursed greenstone rubble and ashlar with some ironstone rubble and limestone ashlar. Lead roofs feature stone coped gables and cross finials.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave with north and south aisles, north porch and south porch (the latter converted to a vestry), and chancel.

The west tower was rebuilt in the mid-14th century and refurbished in the 15th century. It has a plinth and five-stage angle buttresses with staircase slit lights in the south-west buttress. A 14th-century blocked west doorway with a pointed head features a chamfered surround, hood mould and head label stops. Above this is a pointed 15th-century window with two round cusped lights and panel tracery, with hood mould and head label stops. A moulded string course above carries a single cusped ogee-headed light. Bell openings on all four sides are each pointed openings with two cusped ogee-headed lights and hood moulds. The tower is finished with moulded eaves and grotesque gargoyles at the corners, above which rises a parapet with corner pinnacles.

The north aisle west front displays a pointed window restored in the 19th century with two cusped ogee-headed lights and hood mould, moulded eaves and a crocketed parapet. The 19th-century gabled north porch has a pointed doorway with head and jambs moulded in one, hood mould and plank-and-wire doors. The porch interior contains a pointed 15th-century doorway with deeply moulded head and jambs in one, hood mould and a 15th-century door with lower band of cusped tracery and studded ribs. A stoup in the north-west corner reuses medieval fragments and has a polygonal bowl and pedestal.

The north aisle, to the east of the porch, features a moulded plinth and string course. Three 14th-century windows alternate with three two-stage buttresses, each window having a pointed head with three cusped ogee-headed lights, tracery and hood moulds. Moulded eaves above are decorated with large grotesque gargoyle heads and battlements. A 14th-century clerestory above contains four pointed windows, each with two cusped ogee-headed lights and mouchettes, with moulded eaves and large gargoyle heads above and a parapet. The east end of the north aisle displays a pointed three-light 14th-century window with all lights cusped and ogee-headed, reticulated tracery and hood mould, with moulded eaves above and a crocketed parapet.

The chancel was restored in 1878 and has a stepped plinth and moulded string course. The north side has a two-stage buttress dividing two pointed windows to the east, each with three cusped ogee-headed lights, reticulated tracery and hood moulds. The east end has two-stage angle buttresses and a large 15th-century window with a flattened triangular head, five cusped ogee-headed lights and panel tracery with hood mould. The south side of the chancel contains two pointed windows, each with three cusped ogee-headed lights, mouchettes and hood moulds, with a pointed blocked 15th-century doorway between them featuring a bowtell-moulded head and jambs in one, and a hood mould running into the string course to left and right.

The south aisle east end has a pointed 14th-century window with three cusped ogee-headed lights, cusped mouchettes and hood mould, alternating with two-stage buttresses. The 19th-century south porch, converted to a vestry, has a pointed head with two cusped pointed lights, a quatrefoil and hood mould, moulded eaves with large gargoyle heads and battlements. The west end of the south aisle displays a pointed window with two cusped ogee-headed lights, mouchette, hood mould and head label stops, with moulded eaves and a crocketed parapet above. The south aisle clerestory has four pointed windows, each with two cusped ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil, with moulded eaves above decorated with large gargoyle heads and a parapet.

Interior features include a 14th-century tower arch with a triple-chamfered head dying into rectangular jambs. The mid-13th-century north and south arcades each comprise four bays with double cavetto-moulded pointed heads, octagonal piers and polygonal responds. A 14th-century double cavetto-pointed chancel arch has polygonal responds. To the north of the chancel is a rectangular opening with a steep flight of steps, originally leading to a rood loft. A 15th-century screen dado comprises eight panels divided by a central opening flanked by openwork traceried buttresses, each panel enriched with cusped panel tracery containing rosettes.

The pulpit incorporates 15th-century richly traceried panels with ornate rosettes reused from 15th-century bench ends. An early 15th-century octagonal font features cusped panels containing shields and a blind traceried, cusped pedestal. A pointed piscina is located in the north aisle of the nave. An 18th-century eagle lectern is present. A 19th- and 20th-century screen and gallery are set in the tower arch. A rectangular opening is partially blocked by the north-west nave respond, with fragmentary moulded string courses below. Fragments of medieval stained glass survive in a north aisle window.

The nave has a fine 16th-century tiebeam queen-post roof with partially intact cusping and reused 13th-century angels; the roof features richly carved rosette bosses on ashlar corbels. Corbels in the north and south aisles support a 16th-century roof in the north aisle. The chancel and south aisle roofs are of 19th- and 20th-century date.

A monument on the north wall of the nave commemorates William Caley, who died in 1787, and includes a roundel containing a cross.