Church Of St Luke The Evangelist, And Boundary Wall

Church of St Luke the Evangelist, and boundary wall

Parish church in the Decorated style, built 1861–63 by T. C. Hine for the fifth Duke of Newcastle. The building is constructed of rockfaced ashlar with banded slate and slab roofs, ashlar dressings, chamfered plinth, moulded sill, lintel and eaves bands. All openings have hood moulds with ornamental stops. The church features lateral and diagonal buttresses and coped gables with kneelers throughout.

The plan comprises a nave, apsidal chancel, aisles, transepts, north and south porches, and a crossing tower with a stair turret. The nave clerestorey consists of 4 bays, each with 4 double lancets with four-centred arched heads on either side. The west end is dominated by a central buttress with an inscribed panel, above which rises a gabled shrine containing a figure, flanked by single cusped lancets with a circular window above. The chancel has 4 nodal buttresses and 5 cusped double lancets. The south aisle contains 3 decorated lancets and a similar lancet in its west end; the north aisle is identical. The single-bay south transept has a gabled roof running into a lean-to against the tower, with a spherical triangle window on its south side and a doorway to the right. The east end has a single lancet. The north transept is similar, with large coped flanking buttresses adjoining the tower, the left-hand buttress carrying an octagonal chimney. Both porches have moulded doorways and a single lancet on each side. The crossing tower is of 3 stages, with 2 string courses, 4 gargoyles and a coped parapet. The spire was removed in 1973. A circular stair turret is positioned to the east. The first stage of the tower has 2 lancets on the north and south sides; the second stage has a clock on the north and south sides; the third stage has a double lancet bell opening with single shafts on each side.

Internally, the nave arcades consist of 4 bays with round piers, round bases and capitals, chamfered arches and hood moulds. The roof is a kingpost design with stencilled decoration. The crossing has east and west arches with cove, roll and filleted moulding and hood moulds. Triple marble shaft responds with foliate capitals and angel corbels are present, together with a pair of corner shafts with similar capitals. The western arch contains a 7-bay iron screen. The crossing has on each side an archway containing 4-panelled traceried screens with doors. A stencilled panelled ceiling with gilt bosses covers the crossing. The chancel features alabaster and marble inlaid panelling and an elaborate Decorated-style credence, gabled reredos and crocketted gabled sedilia. It contains 5 stained glass windows, all erected in memory of Henry Pelham, fifth Duke of Newcastle, in 1865. The south aisle has an organ at its east end. The north aisle's east end is covered by an elaborately stencilled ceiling serving a lady chapel.

Fittings include plain pews and panelled benches, an inscribed octagonal font with octagonal stem and 8 minor shafts, a carved, painted and gilt ashlar pulpit, and a brass eagle lectern on a ringed shaft. Two brasses commemorate the Duke of Newcastle (1865), with a single brass from 1900 and a war memorial brass on the south wall.

Outside, a boundary wall extends along Shireoaks Common and Shireoaks Road for approximately 150 metres in 2 sections. It is constructed of coursed squared rubble with rounded ashlar coping. Two wrought iron gates, one with chamfered square piers, are present; both feature pyramidal caps.