Church Of St Gregory

Church of St Gregory

This is a parish church of medieval origin, with fabric dating from the 12th to 15th centuries. The chancel was shortened in the 18th century and underwent restoration in 1890, when it was rebuilt. The aisles and south porch were reconstructed in 1912.

The church is built of dressed coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, and has red brick to the clerestory eaves. The roofs are slate, except for the tower and porch which are tiled. All elements are buttressed. A string course runs around all but the tower, south-east aisle and porch. The chancel has a coped east gable with a single ridge cross. The tower features a bellcote.

The plan comprises a tower, nave, north and south aisles, south porch and chancel. The angle-buttressed tower is of two stages, with a string course at the junction and a pyramidal roof. The west doorway is pointed and chamfered with an arched head and wooden door. Above it is a single 12th-century lancet window, chamfered with deep inner splay. The belfry contains four 13th-century pointed arched openings, each with two arched lights divided by a single shaft. The window heads feature lozenge shapes on the east and west sides and circles on the north and south sides. Round tie plates are present on the north and south faces.

The north aisle's west wall has a single three-light arched window with tracery, cusping, hood mould and label stops. The north wall is angle-buttressed and set on a plinth, with a pointed moulded arched doorway. To the left are three 15th-century traceried windows, each with three cusped lights under a flat arch, with hood mould and label stops. The east wall is also on a plinth and has a single three-light arched traceried window with cusping, hood mould and label stops; the central light is partly blocked with ashlar. The 14th-century clerestory has three arched two-light windows with tracery, cusping, hood mould and label stops.

The chancel is set on a plinth on the north and east sides. The north wall contains a single 15th-century three-light window with tracery, cusping, flat arch and hood mould. The angle-buttressed east end has a three-light window of 19th-century date with flowing tracery, hood mould and head label stops. The south wall has two three-light 15th-century windows with tracery, cusping, flat arches and hood moulds.

The south aisle's east wall contains a single blocked pointed arcade arch and a later blocked doorway. A hollow shaped ashlar coffin leans against this wall. The south aisle itself is angle-buttressed and has three three-light 15th-century windows with tracery and cusping under flat arches, with hood moulds and label stops. Two slate headstones lean against the wall: one to John and Elizabeth Rayson dated 1740, decorated with a skull and crossbones, and another to Elizabeth, wife of John Rayson, dated 1742. Both are engraved with decorative lines.

The diagonally buttressed south porch has a coped gable with a single ridge cross. The moulded arched entrance has a hood mould and label stops. The interior roof is supported on five transverse chamfered arches. The east wall contains a re-used sundial. The inner moulded arched doorway has a 16th-century door with hood mould and head label stops.

The interior contains four-bay 13th-century nave arcades with double chamfered arches supported on tall quatrefoil piers with fillets and moulded capitals. The 13th-century double chamfered chancel arch is supported on keeled responds. A low chamfered ashlar wall decorated with small recessed arched panels separates the nave from the chancel. The 12th-century tower arch is chamfered with chamfered imposts supporting the pointed chamfered arch; the west doorway has a round arch. A sill course extends around the south and west walls (except the eastern-most bay) of the south aisle, and a similar course extends around the north aisle.

In the north chancel wall is a rectangular piscina with an inner traceried and cusped arch, hood mould and label stops. Above it is a small rectangular panel decorated with three sleeping soldiers in decorated ogee arcades. To the left is a smaller panel with two censing angels and a figure of Christ rising. To the right is another smaller panel with the remains of two decorated ogee arcades. Three further small remains of this decorative Easter Sepulchre survive high up in the wall. Beside the south doorway are the remains of a stoup. The south aisle wall has a piscina mounted on a pedestal with a foliate carved drain.

The north aisle east window has an ashlar blocked centre panel with a single corbel for a statue with a canopy decorated with cusping and crocketed arches. In the north aisle wall is a square recess and an arched 14th-century tomb recess decorated with a stylised cross and bearing an illegible inscription. The north aisle also contains a 14th-century wimpled lady figure with rippling hems to both sides and the upper half of a 14th-century alabaster knight. In the tower is a monument decorated with a foliated cross. Several 18th-century floor slabs and a hatchment are present. The pulpit, octagonal font and furniture are 19th-century. Against the south wall is a primitive alms box with iron fittings inscribed "Remember the Poor 1684".

The east window of the north aisle contains pale coloured 14th-century stained glass with two figures under arches in two of the lights. Further fragments of medieval glass are present in the north-west window, the two eastern-most windows of the north aisle wall, the north chancel window, and the east and west windows of the south aisle's south wall. All are partly restored 19th-century work. The nave roof dates from the 17th century; other roofs are 19th-century.