Church Of St. Lawrence

Church of St. Lawrence

Parish church of mid-12th century origin, substantially developed through the early 13th, late 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The spire was destroyed in 1762 and the church was restored in 1879. Built of coursed and squared limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings. The roofs are of copper, lead and Collyweston slate.

The building comprises a western tower, clerestoried nave with north and south aisles, north and south transepts, south porch and chancel.

The western tower is of three stages, dating to the 14th century, with clasping angle buttresses, a chamfered bell-moulded plinth, string courses and battlemented parapets embellished with angle grotesques. The tower is slightly offset to the north. The belfry stage features paired 14th-century ogee-headed lights with trefoil heads and quatrefoil above. The west wall contains a two-light window of similar design with hood mould and lion terminals. The north tower wall has a trefoil-headed louvred light. The nave and aisle roofs are covered in copper. The west wall of the north aisle contains a two-light 14th-century window with ogee heads and flat arch. The north wall has a similar three-light window and a blocked pointed doorway. The clerestory is 14th-century with two pairs of small cusped lights. At the east gable of the nave stands a 15th-century single gabled sanctus bellcote. The north transept has a three-light 15th-century window with panel tracery and hood mould. The north wall of the chancel has a blank projection. The east window is 15th-century, comprising five slender lights with panel tracery, a four-centred arched surround with lion head stops. The south wall contains a segmental-headed doorway, a trefoiled low side window and two three-light windows, one with early 14th-century cusped lancets, the other with 15th-century cusped heads. The south transept has a 13th-century lancet, possibly reset, to the east and a 14th-century three-light window with daggers to the head. The walling includes lengths of free stone banding. The clerestory on the south side matches that to the north. The south aisle has a 15th-century three-light window with cusped heads. On a south aisle south-west quoin is an inscription reading "James Briggs Guardian 1677". The gabled 14th-century south porch with Collyweston slate roof has a double-chamfered outer arch and octagonal reveals. The inner door is mid-12th century, featuring side shafts, cushion capitals and a plain tympanum. The arch is of one order, decorated with chevron, roll moulding and crosses saltire to the hood. The shaft bases are also ornamented with chevron. The early door itself comprises overlapping planks with ledges to the rear.

Interior

The north side features a two-bay early 13th-century arcade with circular pier, responds and abaci with double-chamfered arches. Eastward is a later 13th-century double-chamfered arch with octagonal responds leading to the transept, which is balanced by a similar arch to the south. Also in the south is a triple-shafted 13th-century double-chamfered arch to the aisle. The tower arch is offset and 14th-century, of continuous moulding with three waved orders and tall proportions. In the south aisle is a piscina in a square surround and in the east wall a single-chamfered pointed arch on corbels. In the south transept is a triangular-headed aumbry and in the east wall is a mutilated and blocked 12th-century arch. The late 13th-century chancel arch has octagonal responds and a double-chamfered arch, above which is a 19th-century tiled text. The chancel's north wall has a late 13th-century double-chamfered arch with octagonal east respond and beyond it a triangular-headed aumbry. In the south wall is an early 13th-century piscina with stiff-leaf shafted reveals. Statue brackets occupy the east wall. The floor is 19th-century tiled. The internal walls are unplastered and display extensive signs of earlier phases and modifications.

Fittings

All fittings are 19th-century, including a panelled ashlar pulpit with cusped arches. There is a 15th-century tower screen, reset in 1879, featuring a central ogee arch and panelled ogee tracery. The font is plain octagonal 13th-century, standing on four short octagonal legs with a narrow chamfered stem. It has a fine conical cover decorated with 14th-century crockets, pinnacles and a central knop.