Church of The Holy Cross

Church of The Holy Cross

Parish church on the north side of Main Street, Scopwick. The building dates from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, with restoration undertaken in 1852 and 1884. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and features slate roofs with ashlar coped gables with kneelers and cross finials. The building has a high chamfered plinth, flush ashlar quoins, and a chamfered eaves cornice. The plan comprises a west tower, a nave with aisles, a south porch, a chancel, and a north vestry.

The west tower is three stages high and has a moulded and chamfered plinth with a second-stage band. Flat set-back buttresses with set-offs flank the tower. The west side contains a blocked doorway with a small chamfered lancet above. The third stage has a cross-mullion bell opening with side shafts. The south side features a similar bell opening and below it a 19th-century clock face. The east side has another bell opening with a single mullion and chevron-decorated jambs. The north side contains a single slit lancet and a cross-mullion bell opening above. The tower is topped with a plain solid stone balustrade.

The north aisle's west wall is blank, while the north wall has two pairs of 19th-century lancets in chamfered surrounds with hoodmoulds and label stops. The north vestry has a hipped slate roof, a single two-light chamfered-mullion window, and a doorway with a plank door in a chamfered surround with a relieving arch above. To the east is another two-light chamfered-mullion window.

The chancel's east wall has a pointed three-light window in a moulded chamfered surround with reticulated tracery and a hoodmould with label stops. The south wall contains a two-light and a three-light flat-headed window in chamfered surrounds with ornate panel tracery. The south aisle has a single pointed lancet to the east in a chamfered surround with hoodmould, and to the south are two pairs of similar lancets.

The gabled south porch has a diagonal buttress with set-offs and a shallow pointed-arched opening in a moulded chamfered surround with hoodmould and label stops. Inside are stone benches and a 19th-century wooden roof. The doorway has a narrow pointed double-arched surround with a 19th-century panel door. The inner arch is chamfered, the outer arch is decorated with a keeled moulding, a band of dogtooth, and a hoodmould with label stops; both arches have a plain impost band. The south aisle's west wall has a pair of chamfered lancets.

The interior features three-bay nave arcades with double-chamfered arches. The north arcade has a single octagonal pier and respond, plus a single four-keeled-shaft compound pier and respond. The south arcade has two compound piers with four ringed shafts and keeled responds. All piers have moulded capitals and bases. The tower arch is triple-chamfered. The chancel arch is double-chamfered with keeled responds and stiff-leaf capitals.

South of the chancel arch are the remains of an ornate 14th-century niche with a crocketed gable and pinnacles. A 13th-century octagonal stone font is present, as is a 13th-century tomb with a defaced effigy of a knight. The roof and wall linings date to the 19th century, as do the wooden pews, choir stalls, and a stone pulpit. A 20th-century reredos and altar rail are also installed. A wall tablet in the north aisle commemorates Wm Pears (1856) and is surrounded by a pilaster frame.