Church Of St Augustine

Church of St. Augustine

Parish church in Flintham, dating from the 12th to 16th centuries, with major restorations in 1828 by Nicholson for Colonel Hildyard, and in 1896 by Hodgson Fowler. The building is constructed of coursed and herringbone rubble with ashlar detailing, beneath lead and slate roofs. It comprises a nave, crossing tower and chancel.

The nave, rebuilt in 15th-century style in 1828, consists of three bays with a chamfered plinth, diagonal and intermediate gabled buttresses, moulded eaves, and coped parapet and gables. Windows throughout are triple lancets with panel tracery and hood moulds. On the south side stands a splayed doorcase with hood mould and traceried panelled door with triple overlight, followed to the right by two lancets. The west gable contains a single lancet. The north side has three lancets, and the east gable incorporates a small door providing access to a stair turret.

The crossing tower is 13th-century work, unbuttressed and single-staged, with a chamfered plinth and dressed stone quoins. It features moulded eaves, a coped parapet, and a pyramidal slate roof topped with a finial and weathercock. A blocked 13th-century arch on the south side contains a 19th-century double lancet in 15th-century style with a four-centred arched head; above it lies an unglazed opening, with 19th-century cusped double lancets with hood moulds on each side above. The west side has a canted stair turret with moulded eaves and conical roof, and displays a blocked 13th-century opening.

The chancel, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries and comprising three bays, has a chamfered and moulded plinth, stepped sill band, chamfered eaves, and a coped gable with cross. The north side features a central blocked doorway above which stands a 13th-century lancet, with similar blocked lancets flanking it to left and right, all with hood moulds. The east end displays two pairs of gabled corner buttresses and a 16th-century four-light lancet with coved reveal, hood mould and mask stops. The south side has gabled buttresses and contains an off-centre 13th-century chamfered priest's door flanked to the left by two 13th-century lancets with hood moulds, and to the right a 14th-century double lancet with Y tracery, hood mould and foliate stops.

The interior of the aisleless nave features a panelled dado, moulded cornice and panelled plaster ceiling. The south side contains a late 19th-century glazed draught enclosure, while the east end incorporates a canted stair turret with broached corner. The crossing contains 13th-century arches with chamfered east and west arches featuring round filleted responds with moulded capitals and bases and hood mould on the east side; the north and south sides display blocked 13th-century arches with simpler moulding. The chancel roof, 16th-century in pitch and restored in the 19th century, features moulded cambered tie beams, moulded purlins and matchboarding. The north side contains a chamfered aumbry to the east, while the south side has a 13th-century piscina with cove moulded trefoil head and hood mould. The westernmost window contains reset 18th-century stained glass heraldry above a built-up central platform with ashlar gradine.

The church contains numerous fittings and furnishings of note. The font, dating from the 14th century, features a moulded base, octagonal ringed stem, and plain octagonal bowl with coved rim, surmounted by a flat 18th-century wooden cover with large oval knob. An unusual oak altar rail, possibly constructed from a stair balustrade of around 1600, features turned cylindrical balusters and moulded rail; four similar balusters are assembled into a side table. A large oak altar table with turned legs, low stretchers and chip-carved top rail dates to around 1600. A panelled oak chest bears a painted inscription "WB TS 1633". A 19th-century wooden lectern with turned stem, a 19th-century traceried panelled oak pulpit, late 19th-century panelled benches with moulded ends, a late 19th-century clergy desk, and mid-20th-century panelled oak choir stalls and book stands are also present.

Monuments and memorials include a framed benefaction board of around 1811 signed "J D Curtis Sc"; a large alabaster wall tablet with Latin inscription on slate to Richard Hooker dated 1654, with scroll brackets, flanking panels with cornucopiae and arms, and a crest with painted achievement and scroll brackets; a 13th-century effigy of a Crusader, damaged and reputedly Sir John Hose; marble tablets dated 1785 and 1860; four Thoroton and Hildyard family hatchments from the late 18th and 19th centuries; three Hildyard family brasses of the 20th century; a large Baroque-style painted wood memorial tablet to the Thoroton and Hildyard families dated 1977; a war memorial brass of 1920; and a 20th-century stone tablet.