Church Of St Wilfrid

Church of St Wilfrid

This parish church spans from the 11th to 20th centuries, comprising a west tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, and south porch. The fabric is coursed limestone and ironstone rubble with limestone ashlar details, covered with plain tiled and leaded roofs.

The 13th-century west tower rises three storeys in coursed ironstone and limestone rubble, with lancet windows featuring roll-moulded heads on the first and second stages. The topmost stage has paired belfry lights beneath monolithic heads under chamfered hood moulds. The tower is surmounted by a 15th-century embattled and pinnacled roof with ogee-headed merlons. Blind panels of cusped lozenges containing shields decorate the tower above a fine set of gargoyles and grotesque heads positioned at the angles. The side walls of the nave contain two-light 15th-century four-centred clerestorey windows—two on each side—under chamfered arches. The walls feature a parapet decorated with shield and lozenge motifs and pinnacles with gargoyles beneath. A 20th-century boiler house stands at the west end of the north aisle.

The western half of the north aisle is constructed in banded ironstone and limestone and appears to date from the 15th century. Its west wall has a restored 15th-century three-light window beneath a four-centred arch with a tympanum above containing mouchettes. A 15th-century north door sits beneath a hood mould with simple label stops. Three 15th-century triple lights occupy the north wall—one now blocked—beyond which a 16th-century triple light under a simple chamfered hood mould marks a remodelling of the aisle. The east window of the north aisle is blocked, with a buttress covering it. The east wall of the chancel is 15th-century and contains triple 19th-century lancets. The south wall of the chancel has two 13th-century windows with Y tracery of two lights and one early 13th-century geometric two-light window. The reveal of a 12th-century window survives beside a 15th-century buttress, which in turn covers an earlier pilaster strip visible on the east face. The south nave wall displays a later 14th-century window with reticulated tracery and a second 15th-century window west of the porch, featuring a flat lintel with human mask label stops. A scar of an earlier porch is visible above the 15th-century south porch, which has a steeply pitched roof.

The south porch is constructed in limestone ashlar with a coped plinth and angle buttresses. A stone roof is supported on six ribs. The porch features a four-centred door, a crested gable with a niche at the ridge, and pyramidal blocks above the outer angles. The south door was recut in the 19th century and is surmounted by a 15th-century niche with a foliated ogee head. Stone side benches line the interior. The porch contains a gargoyle on its west side and a water chute on the east.

Interior

The interior contains a 12th-century north arcade of two bays supported by a single pillar with a square abacus and scalloped cushion capital. The east respond is similar, but the western respond is a 15th-century grotesque head, likely modified when a statue niche was inserted beneath. The eastern jamb has a 15th-century ogee-headed niche cut into it, now blocked, and a second smaller niche on the north side. The arches feature a step and chamfer with a chamfered hood mould. Above the central pillar is a 13th-century statue bracket. The 13th-century west tower arch has two orders with a pointed head; above it is a square-headed doorway with an 18th-century lattice wood screen. The rear arch of the more westerly window in the south wall of the nave is 19th-century; the eastern jamb of the other window has two 15th-century statue brackets, one castellated, and a third bracket stands immediately east of the window. The nave roof is 15th-century timber, supported on contemporary corbels portraying shield-bearing angels. The north aisle has a 15th-century roof in its western part and a 16th-century roof further east with canted trusses. The eastern part, now used as a vestry, was formerly the mortuary chapel of the Hussey family and retains rich paving in black and white marble. A wide four-centred arch opens into the aisle from the chancel; the east respond bears a crowned Tudor rose. Notable Hussey monuments in the north aisle necessitated blocking of earlier windows in the north and east walls of the aisle, though a compensating early 16th-century three-light window was inserted in the north wall. The east wall is flanked by angle niches. The northern niche is surmounted by a richly crocketed canopy and supported by a shield-bearing angel with a fleur-de-lys device; the southern niche is less well preserved.

The chancel arch is early 13th-century with fine waterleaf capitals and nook shafts with decorative collars halfway up. It is flanked by a 19th-century Norman Revival squint on the north and a four-centred 15th-century door to rood loft stairs on the south, which lead to a higher loft door. In the west wall of the chancel, the upper parts of the capitals, imposts, and springers of a chancel arch of 11th-century character are visible; the jambs and rudimentary bulbous capitals are probably Saxon, though the voussoirs of the roll-moulded arch above are clearly 12th-century. Fragments of a 12th-century north chancel arcade of three bays are visible at the north-east angle of the chancel and beneath the 15th-century three-light window in the north wall. The easternmost bay was blocked by the insertion of a 15th-century Easter sepulchre beneath a heavily moulded and embattled ogee arch with a pinnacled reredos supported by kneeling angels on either side. A 12th-century sedilia occupies the south wall. The altar and all fittings are 19th-century except for superb altar rails dating to around 1700, featuring a broad armrest on top, well-turned balusters, and a splendid upward sweep at the centre.

The font beneath the tower is 15th-century and octagonal, with cusped lozenge panels containing alternating shields and flower motifs on the sides of the bowl. The shaft contains four-centred arched cusped niches with figures of Old Testament prophets carved in high relief.

Monuments

The north aisle contains a notable collection of Hussey family monuments. The east wall displays a marble plaque to Sir Thomas Hussey, 1st Baronet, died 1698, with a gadrooned base supporting a portrait bust and surmounted by a scrolly cartouche bearing a shield of arms. The north wall contains monuments to Sir William Hussey, died 1691, and Dame Sarah Hussey, died 1697, both featuring broken pediments, scrolly cartouches, and cherubs. An altar tomb in the north-east angle of the chapel commemorates Thomas Hussey, son of Sir Thomas, died 1676 aged 15 years, with a black marble ledger slab above a limestone tomb chest. Further west is a second altar tomb resting on lion supporters with a gadrooned base bearing an incised effigy of William Smith, died 1550.

A parish chest, dated 1701 and initialled AF, is also present in the church.