Church Of Saint Lawrence

Church of Saint Lawrence, Sedgebrook

A parish church of mid-15th-century date, with significant earlier elements including an early 13th-century north arcade and a 14th-century chancel arch. The chancel and south chapel were funded by Sir John Markham in 1468. The building underwent restoration in 1897. It comprises a chancel, south chapel with stair turret, north chapel, a nave with north and south aisles, north and south porches, and a west tower.

The church is constructed in coursed squared ironstone with stone dressings, and the east end employs Ancaster stone ashlar. The roofs are lead. The architectural style is Perpendicular, characterised throughout by moulded plinths, coped parapets, deeply pointed window arches and hood moulds with stops.

The chancel has three bays with a crenellated parapet and diagonal buttresses to the east. The east window is a five-light segmental pointed design with traceried transom and panel tracery. The south side features a two-light pointed arched window with traceried transom. The north side holds three linked two-light windows set high, positioned above a former vestry now demolished, with a segment-headed doorway below and an ogee piscina to its left.

The south chapel has diagonal buttresses and three linked two-light windows with cusped lights. Its east end features a segmental pointed three-light window with panel tracery. A crenellated octagonal turret in two stages occupies the south-west corner, containing a staircase and sanctus bell.

The single-bay north chapel has a coped east end and a segmental pointed three-light window with ogee heads and cusped tracery. The north side contains a similar three-light window with plain panel tracery.

The south aisle contains four two-light windows with cusped heads, and a diagonal buttress with matching window at its west end. The north aisle has a buttress to the east, a diagonal buttress to the west, and four windows identical to those in the south aisle, one positioned above the porch.

The south porch is parapeted with a moulded doorway flanked by single shafts, hood mould, and diagonal buttresses. The interior features a moulded doorway with hood mould, a boarded ceiling with spine beam, and stone benches. The north porch is unbuttressed and unparapeted, with a similar interior arrangement, and a cusped stoup to the right of the doorway.

The square west tower rises three stages with clasping buttresses to the lower stages and angle buttresses above. It has chamfered string courses, a crenellated parapet, and gargoyles. To the west stands a Tudor arched doorway with hood mould, mask stops, and shield designs in the spandrels, surmounted by a three-light window with cusped heads and panel tracery under a stepped hood mould. The north side shows blank lower stages. The south side carries a clock dated 1919 on the middle stage. The bell stage features on each side two two-light cusped bell openings beneath an ogee gable with crest.

The interior is rendered with largely original low-pitched roofs supported by wooden brackets.

The chancel contains a 14th-century moulded arch with mutilated hood mould and clustered shaft responds, and a restored Perpendicular wooden screen. The east window is flanked by mutilated canopied niches. The south side displays an elaborate cusped piscina and aumbry, with a buttressed and vaulted sedilia featuring pendant gables. A two-bay arcade to the south chapel has moulded arches and a central quatrefoil pier; the east bay features brackets on ornate angel corbels. The north side has a Tudor arched roll-moulded doorway and small ogee piscina to the east, and an opening to the north chapel to the west, similar to the chancel arch.

The south chapel's east window has flanking canopied niches. The south side contains an aumbry and enriched piscina to the east, and another piscina to the west. The west end holds a stone screen with door and unglazed two-light window, with a wooden rood loft above.

The north chapel, now the organ chamber, retains a restored Perpendicular screen with rood loft above and a small piscina in the south-east corner.

The nave contains an early 13th-century north arcade of three bays with double-chamfered round arches, linked hood mould, and round piers. The 15th-century south arcade features moulded pointed arches with hood moulds and octagonal piers. At the west end, a tall moulded tower arch with round responds and a 20th-century screen opens into the tower.

The south aisle has a moulded pointed arched doorway to the stair turret at its east end and an altered moulded west door, both with hood moulds. The north aisle has regular fenestration. Both aisles retain restored lean-to roofs.

Fittings include an octagonal 11th-century scalloped font, a restored traceried panelled oak pulpit dated 1634 on a 19th-century stone base, and benches and stalls from the 14th and 15th centuries with unusual poppyheads and candle holders. A marble benefactions tablet of 1717 is also present.

Memorials include a small incised slab of 1494 to Dorothy Markham.