Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

This is a parish church of 13th to 15th-century date, substantially restored in 1830 and again between 1900 and 1908. It is built of coursed and squared limestone rubble with lead and plain tiled roofs.

The church comprises a western tower with spire, a clerestoried nave, aisles, chancel, and south porch.

The tower is a leaning three-stage structure of 14th-century date, fitted with stepped angle buttresses and a battlemented parapet. The recessed spire carries one set of lucarnes in the four principal directions. The belfry stage has two bell openings with trefoil-headed lights and quatrefoil heads above, set within deeply moulded pointed surrounds. Below this is an ogee-headed cusped lancet. The west door is pointed with continuous moulding, and above it sits a two-light window with reticulated tracery.

The north aisle is battlemented and features a ballflower frieze with stepped buttresses carrying crocketed pinnacles. It contains four large Perpendicular windows with panel tracery (one at each end and two to the north), all of four lights, along with a small pointed doorway in a continuously moulded surround. The battlemented nave clerestory carries three three-light windows with chamfered four-centred surrounds. Lead rainwater hoppers are dated 1830. Beyond to the east, a blocked nave arch contains a further four-light Perpendicular window.

The chancel is roofed with Collyweston tiles and has a three-light window with hollow chamfered rectangular surround and moulded mullions in its north wall. The east end contains a reset three-light 15th-century window. The south wall of the chancel has a pointed doorway with rectangular surround and hood, and a three-light window matching that on the north.

The south aisle includes a tall three-light early 15th-century window with cusped heads to the lights, and three similar windows with moulded reveals and four-centred heads, plus one further similar window to the west.

The south porch is gabled with an embattled parapet and pinnacles. The outer arch is of 13th-century date with dogtooth moulding, pointed form, circular responds and annular capitals. The inner doorway is 14th-century, continuously moulded with hollow chamfer and filleted hood, and incorporates reset 12th-century corbels.

The interior contains four-bay nave arcades of 14th-century date resting on 13th-century pier bases. The piers are quatrefoil in plan with annular capitals and double roll moulded arches. The north arcade is blocked at the easternmost bay. The westernmost piers have been buttressed to prevent the nave from moving further westwards. The tower arch is tall and narrow with a triple chamfered surround, filleted responds and annular capitals. Triangular corbels remain from an earlier nave roof. The present tie beam roof is dated 1830. The chancel arch is double chamfered with circular responds and demi shafts. The chancel has been shortened and contains reset medieval glass in its south side.

Fittings include a 17th-century octagonal panelled oak pulpit with chip-carved paterae, and an early 15th-century octagonal font with quatrelobes bearing shields and fleurons, a buttressed stem with niches, and further quatrelobes. A Royal Arms and a hatchment are displayed in the south aisle.

Monuments in the chancel include a 14th-century full-length effigy of Sir Hugh de Cressy (1313–1347), a knight in chain mail and surcoat with his head on a lozenge-shaped cushion and feet on a lion, covered by a cusped canopy now set in the east wall. The north wall bears a marble plaque to Henry Heron (died 1730) with an open pediment and cherub. The south aisle contains two 18th-century marble wall monuments: one to Everard Buckworth (died 1751) and another to 1792, both with Doric pilasters, urns and armorial escutcheons.