Church Of The Holy Cross

Church of the Holy Cross, Great Ponton

This is a parish church of late 13th-century origin, with major additions in the 14th and 15th centuries. The most prominent feature is the west tower, built in 1519 by Anthony Ellis, a merchant of the Staple of Calais. The church is constructed in ashlar with lead roofs and comprises a clerestoried nave, aisles, chancel, south porch, and the substantial western tower.

The Tower

The tower is a three-stage structure in Somerset style, notable for its rich decorative detail. It has a deep moulded plinth and an elaborate frieze of quatrefoils, mouchettes, and triskeles. Moulded string courses divide the stages, and the parapet is decorated with battlements and a further frieze. Eight crocketed pinnacles crown the corners, and two large grotesque chutes project from each face. A golden violin weather vane tops the structure.

The tower features stepped corner buttresses with ogee-headed niches. The belfry stage contains tall, large two-light louvred openings with transomes and cusped heads to the lights. The second stage has a three-light window with cusped heads and deep bowtell moulded reveals. Below this, the 19th-century panelled and traceried west door has a four-centred head set in a deeply moulded rectangular surround with carved spandrels. A four-light west window mirrors the design found on the south side.

Inscriptions reading "Thynk and thyanke God of all" appear multiple times on the tower's faces, along with the arms of Anthony Ellis under a hood mould.

Exterior Features

The north aisle has a moulded parapet with a pointed doorway and two 16th-century three-light windows, one partly recut in the 19th century. The clerestory features a moulded parapet and three two-light early 15th-century windows with quatrefoils above.

The chancel, which has been reduced in length, retains a 15th-century east window of three cusped lights with panel tracery. A matching three-light window appears in the south wall, together with a four-centred low side window with four-centred arch.

The 15th-century south aisle contains a two-light window in the east wall with cusped heads and a 16th-century three-light window in the south wall with a human head set in the concave moulded hood. The west wall of the south aisle has a two-light window matching that to the east.

The late 13th-century gabled south porch features a pointed single-chamfered outer door with moulded imposts and side benches. The inner doorway is 16th-century with a concave moulded surround, hood, and human head label stops, along with 19th-century panelled and blank traceried doors.

Interior

The interior contains three-bay 16th-century nave arcades with octagonal piers and responds, moulded capitals, and double-chamfered pointed arches. The tall tower arch also has octagonal responds with double concave chamfers and a hood with angel stops.

The chancel arch displays 13th-century rounded reveals and 16th-century octagonal capitals. In the north wall of the chancel are tall double arches, one blocked, dating to the late 13th century. To the south of the chancel arch is a 14th-century cusped ogee-headed doorway to the rood loft turning stair.

In the north aisle at the east end stands a heavily moulded arch with octagonal corbels, and beyond in the north chapel is a contemporary statue bracket. The rear arches of the 16th-century chancel and north aisle windows have concave chamfer mouldings.

In the chancel north wall is a pointed and moulded aumbry with shelf. To the south is a four-centred arched sedilia, with a matching piscina beyond. All these liturgical features date to the 16th century. In the south wall of the south aisle is a blocked four-centred arched surround.

Fittings and Monuments

Most fittings date to the 19th century. The church retains an unusual square font and Royal Arms to George III.

In the north chapel are reset low panels bearing heraldic devices of Anthony Ellis, which together with the surround in the south aisle may represent the remains of the benefactor's chest tomb. Anthony Ellis also built the house adjacent to the church, now the former rectory.