Church of St Luke

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 19 February 2024 to update the description and to reformat the text to current standards

SK62NE 6/70

HICKLING MAIN STREET (east side) Church of St Luke

1.12.65

GV I

Church. Predominantly C14, clerestory and porch C15, chancel rebuilt 1845, tower rebuilt 1873, general restoration 1886. Thinly coursed rubble with ashlar dressings. Ashlar tower. Lead roofs. West tower, four-bay nave with lean-to north and south aisles and south porch. Three-bay chancel. Tall three-stage tower with angle buttresses, three-light west window, two-light bell-chamber openings, decorative frieze and crenellated parapet. Embattled south porch. Two two-light south aisle windows with cusped lights. Two two-light north aisle windows with geometrical tracery and a simply moulded doorway. The chancel windows are of two and three lights with square heads, Perpendicular tracery and deep square hood moulds. The chancel is also embattled. Built into the west wall of the south aisle is an early C14 coffin lid with relief carving of naturalistic foliage growing from a cross with stepped base and foiled head.

Interior: four-bay north and south arcades with double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. Nave roof has massive quadrant moulded tie-beams, and some purlins are similarly moulded. Chancel arch on round responds which are slightly filleted. Piscina, south aisle, east end. Octagonal font with plain shields and angels under the bowl. The cover is simple with a re-cut centre piece dated 1665. Small poor-box on a pedestal, carved in raised letters in sunk panels on three sides:

REME THE POORE MBER HF 16 85 RB

The south door has delicate C13, flowing ironwork. Bench ends with heads on the arms and in the poppy heads. A brass on the chancel floor of 1521 to Master Ralph Babington, rector.

N Pevsner. The Buildings of England, 1979.

Listing NGR: SK6918829279

On the north side of the chancel is a C16 effigy base which was discovered in the churchyard in 1983 where it remained until it was moved into the church in around 2000. It is of limestone with a tapering rectangular base with a shaped top. A raised Latin legend around the sides reads: ‘Here lies William Harrowden on whose soul may God have mercy. Amen.’ The inscription refers to William Vaux, 3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden.

On the south side of the chancel is a mid C10 Anglo-Saxon coffin lid with much interlace, a cross and two beasts. It was dug up in the churchyard in around 1821, and stored in the church. It was relocated from the south aisle wall in around 2000.