Parish Church Of St Paul

Parish Church of St Paul, Morton

An Anglican church set on the north side of the road in the village. The building dates from 1890–1891 and was designed by J T Micklethwaite and Somers Clarke in a free mixture of Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic styles. The construction cost £11,000. The 1890–91 building incorporates the tower of an earlier church that was consecrated in 1846; this tower appears to have been re-faced. The width of the 1840s church determined the width of the new nave, according to information held by the churchwardens.

The exterior is constructed of rock-faced snecked masonry with ashlar dressings and slate roofs with red clay ridge tiles. The interior walls are brick. The plan comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles extending to the west wall of the west tower, a northeast transept with transeptal organ chamber, a southeast transeptal chapel, and a southeast vestry.

The chancel has angle buttresses and a high-set east window with Perpendicular tracery. On the north side is a high-set four-light square-headed window. The buttressed aisles have embattled parapets, diagonal buttresses, and two and three-light square-headed windows with trefoil-headed lights. The west ends of the aisles feature moulded west-end doorways leading to shallow porches with statue niches above. The northeast organ chamber has a quatrefoil window in its gable. The north transept is deeper and has a three-light north window with reticulated tracery. On the southeast side, the transeptal chapel dedicated to St Hugh has diagonal buttresses and a three-light window with reticulated tracery; its east bay is contained in a low-roofed block with parapet, gabled to the east. The southeast vestry projects to the south with a shallow gabled roof and parapet, three and four-light square-headed windows, and a stack with a tall octagonal stone shaft against the chancel wall. The west tower has diagonal buttresses that rise as corner pinnacles with crocketted finials, an embattled parapet, a chamfered west doorway, a two-light Decorated-style west window, and similar belfry windows. Doors to the aisles and tower dating from the 1890s have ornamental ironwork. Rainwater goods are dated 1890.

The interior is painted and plastered and is notable for a very complete set of high-quality 1890s fittings, many designed by Micklethwaite and Somers Clarke, together with original painted decoration to the roofs and organ case. Four-bay north and south arcades have octagonal piers with double-chamfered arches; the responds to the easternmost piers are decorated with shafts and mark the east end of the 1846 church. The transepts have taller arches. The floor is of woodblock and stone slabs. A moulded chancel arch divides the nave from the chancel. The timber barrel nave roof has coving divided into panels by moulded ribs, retaining an original 1890s scheme of delicate painted decoration in cream, red and green, with texts at the west and east ends. The aisle roofs are flat and divided into panels by moulded ribs. The chancel has a canted coved roof also preserving its original 1890s decoration. The southeast chapel dedicated to St Hugh has a flat ceiling divided into panels by moulded ribs, the panels painted with swans and mitres. A statue of St Hugh stands in a niche on the east wall. The tower has a crank-headed arched opening to a gallery with a central doorway below.

A fine nine-bay timber chancel screen features ogee openings and integral rood figures. Timber parclose screens divide the organ chamber and the chapel of St Hugh; the chapel has an iron screen with fleur-de-lis cresting across its west opening. On the south side are sedilia, an aumbrey and piscina recess under ogee arches with bold cusping. A textile hanging behind the high altar is thought to be original, as are textiles associated with the south wall sedilia and a William Morris-designed carpet in the chancel. Choir stalls have poppyhead ends. A very fine large black Frosterly marble font has an octagonal bowl on an octagonal stem and a tall buttressed timber font cover with original suspension mechanism, decorated with timber statues. A polygonal timber pulpit has sides decorated with blind tracery. The organ case retains painted decoration. Nave benches have square-headed ends with sunk panels. Original light fittings, adapted for electricity, have four-way brass brackets. Some surviving radiators are probably original.

The stained glass includes a window by Clayton and Bell in the tower with a 1870s memorial date, and a series of eight windows by Edward Burne-Jones for the Morris Company dating from 1891 to 1914. The church guide records the painters of the individual windows from original Morris and Company documentation.

The 1890–91 building campaign was largely financed by Sir Hickman Bacon, Baronet. The church is outstanding for the quality and completeness of its late 19th-century fittings and stained glass by the Morris Company, installed from 1891 to 1914.