Church Of St Cornelius

Church of St. Cornelius

This is a parish church of late 12th-century origin, with substantial additions and modifications spanning the 13th to 15th centuries. The building underwent major restoration in 1854 and 1868.

The church is constructed of coursed and squared ironstone rubble with ashlar dressings, with slate and lead roofs finished with stone coped gables. It comprises a western tower, nave, chancel, aisles, a south chapel, and a south porch.

The tower is a tall three-stage structure dating to the 14th century. It features a roll-moulded plinth, angle buttresses, a single string course, and a moulded parapet with gargoyles at the angles. The western window has two lights with cusped ogee heads, a wave-moulded reveal, a hood mould, and 19th-century human head labels. In the belfry stage, paired 15th-century lights with cusped heads and panel tracery face each direction. The tower is crowned by a recessed octagonal limestone spire adorned with trefoil-headed lucarnes and projecting heads facing the four principal directions.

The north aisle has a 19th-century west window of three lights with a segmental head. The north wall contains a double-chamfered doorway recut in the 19th century and a further 19th-century three-light window. At the north-east angle of the aisle are two corner buttresses terminating in 14th-century floriated canopies. The east aisle window is 14th-century, with three lights under round cusped heads beneath a segmental arched head.

The 19th-century chancel has paired lights in its north wall with quatrefoils above, and a three-light window in the east wall. The south wall of the chancel contains a two-light 19th-century window. The south chapel, with a leaded roof, has a two-light 19th-century east window and three similar windows on the south side of both chapel and aisle.

The nave clerestorey consists of three pairs of 13th-century lights beneath segmental arches with cusped ogee heads and panel tracery on both north and south sides. In the west wall of the aisle is a small late 12th-century round-headed window with hollow chamfer.

The 19th-century gabled porch has a pointed and moulded outer arch, while the 14th-century inner doorway is single-chamfered with simple chamfered imposts and hood mould.

The interior contains early 14th-century three-bay arcades with double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. The 14th-century tower arch has double wave mouldings dying into the reveals without capitals, though the keeled and double-chamfered arch is 19th-century work. From the south aisle, a late 13th-century arch opens into the south chapel, supported on octagonal corbels; the southern corbel has an earlier annular capital beneath it. The north nave wall contains a high-level doorway to the rood loft. Eight 14th-century corbels in the nave, decorated with human heads, support the 19th-century roof. The north aisle east wall includes a statue bracket and aumbry. In the chancel south wall, a double-chamfered arch with octagonal responds opens into the former south chapel, now a vestry. The presumably reset remains of a late 13th-century double piscina occupy this space, featuring engaged shafts and human masks on the bowls, surmounted by a 19th-century trefoil.

The reredos is a fine 19th-century tiled composition with two tin commandment boards above it. Most fittings date from the 19th century; the chancel screen was erected in 1911. The font is a recut of the original late 13th-century font and retains the original base. It comprises an octagonal bowl with traceried panels on a square pedestal with engaged columns at the angles, set on a stepped base. The aisle and chancel windows contain late 19th-century stained glass. At the west end of the south aisle is a battered 17th-century chest.

The church contains notable early 15th-century brasses. At the west end of the north aisle are two fine examples: one depicts John Lyndewode (died 1421), a merchant with his feet resting on a woolsack bearing his woolmark; the other shows John and Alice Lynwode (died 1419), a merchant and his wife, beneath which is a panel containing seven figures under cusped arcades, with an inscription below recording the deceased. All three figures have elaborately cusped ogee canopies. Between the two brasses is an abraded slab with a Lombardic inscription, probably the matrix for a now-vanished brass. The chancel contains a restrained brass plate to the Reverend Humphrey Henchman, B.A. (died 1785).