Church Of St George

Church of St George

This is a parish church of medieval origins, with fabric dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, later alterations in the 17th century, and a major porch addition of 1693. The building underwent significant restoration in 1855 and 1877, probably by T. C. Hine, with further work to the tower in 1886 and 1892. It is constructed of dressed coursed rubble with ashlar detailing, and slate roofs. The church comprises a tower with spire, nave, south aisle, south porch, and chancel, all set on a plinth with buttresses and coped gables. Single ridge crosses stand over the east nave and east chancel. There is a single red brick stack to the north nave.

The tower is a 14th-century structure of a single stage, embattled with angle buttresses. An attached circular embattled stair turret rises to the northeast. The early 15th-century spire features four lucarnes. The west side of the tower contains a 19th-century doorway with two rectangular lights above, while the north side has a single rectangular light, and the stair turret has four rectangular lights. The south side has a single rectangular light. The four 14th-century bell chamber openings each contain two trefoil-arched lights and two mouchettes under a flat arch.

The north nave has a continuous sill band forming a hood mould over the doorway, extending to the chancel. It contains a single 14th-century window with two trefoil-arched lights and tracery under a flat arch. To the left is a moulded arched doorway with a 17th-century door, and further left are two similar windows. The north chancel has two similar windows. The east chancel contains a single arched 15th-century window of three lights with cusped panel tracery, hood mould, and label stops. The south chancel has two similar 14th-century windows, and below them on the left is a 14th-century moulded arched doorway with remains of three attached colonnettes with fillets and moulded capitals. A single buttress to the right carries a sundial. To the left is a single restored 15th-century window with two cinquefoil-arched lights under a flat arch, with band forming hood mould.

The east wall of the south aisle contains a single 17th-century three-light window under a flat arch. The south wall has two similar 14th-century windows. To the left stands the 1693 porch, featuring a parapet and clasping pilaster buttresses whose capitals support an entablature. An arched entrance has imposts and a panelled spandrel, with a keystone inscribed "RS:HP HW 1693". The inner doorway is moulded and arched. To the left is a single similar 14th-century window. The 15th-century clerestory has six windows, each with three arched lights under a flat arch.

Internally, a four-bay 14th-century nave arcade comprises octagonal piers with double-chamfered arches, hood moulds, and label stops. A moulded pointed-arched doorway leads to the tower. The chancel arch is double-chamfered, with the inner chamfer supported on two corbels. A glazed screen is being constructed from a 15th-century rood screen, featuring cinquefoil-arched panels with cusps terminating in three small orbs, and trefoil panels surmounted by crocketed finials.

The chancel contains a restored 14th-century sedilia with cinquefoil arches and crocketed ogee hood moulds with finials. A trefoil-arched piscina flanks the top with single small ogee-arched recesses for cruets. A similar piscina stands in the south wall of the south aisle. The north wall of the south aisle has a trefoil-arched piscina, with single corbels flanking the west window. The east chancel wall retains remains of a 14th-century arched and cusped canopy. The restored pulpit incorporates some 17th-century decorative panelling. A 19th-century panelled octagonal ashlar font stands in the nave, alongside a 17th-century altar table and some 18th-century benches. Remaining furniture is 19th-century, including two carved chairs. Remains of an 18th-century clock mechanism survive. A board detailing benefactions is displayed.

The chancel contains an alabaster tomb of 1616 with reclining effigies of William and Tabitha Sacheverell. The male figure has his head resting on a helmet, and the female figure on a pillow. The sides are decorated with incised carved figures beside the front inscription and shield. A further tomb to Raefe Sacheverell of 1605 is mounted on the wall with an inscription plaque surrounded by painted shields, with a modillion band beneath. The plaque is flanked by single Doric columns supporting a dentil cornice with a shield above.

A wall tablet to Joseph Milner of 1750 has an inscription flanked by decorative scrolls. The wall tablet to Henry Sacheverell of 1598 has coloured shields flanking the inscription with a modillion surround rising to a round arch enclosing a coloured shield and flanked by single obelisks. Further wall tablets commemorate John Wickliffe (1792) and Henry and Katherine Sitwell (1691), the latter surmounted by a segmental arch containing a single angel's head with painted shield above and a festoon-decorated apron. Several 18th and 19th-century floor slabs remain.

The west wall of the south aisle displays seven 18th and 19th-century slate wall tablets to the Stevenson family. Three 18th-century floor slabs are set into a raised dais, and five decorative 18th and 19th-century wall tablets to the Wilkinson and Stevenson families, by Winfield and Chilwell, stand on the south and north walls. Under the east window of the south aisle lies the 17th-century tomb of Alicie Georgii Sitwell. The 15th-century nave roof retains some moulded and carved beams.