Church Of St George

CHURCH OF ST GEORGE

Parish church with origins in the 13th century or earlier. The nave was rebuilt circa 1855 by S Pountney Smith, and the chancel was rebuilt and shortened in 1864 by Bodley. The building is constructed of dressed, coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has a plain tiled roof with an east gable-end parapet and cross finial, plus two blue brick stacks on the north side of the nave roof.

The church consists of a west tower with a north vestry, a continuous four-bay nave with a south porch, and a two-bay chancel. The architectural style is Early English.

The west tower is a 19th-century addition with three stages, a battered plinth, and a stepped string between the two lower stages. The west window contains a pair of lancets beneath a relieving arch, interrupting the string which forms a hoodmould above it. Rectangular lights pierce the north and south elevations. The belfry is timber-framed with tiled weathering at its base, continuing the main roof line. Each elevation of the belfry displays two large panels with decorative herringbone struts and above them a row of six rectangular louvred bell openings with quatrefoils piercing the upper part of each opening. A short octagonal spire with a splay foot, swept overhanging bracketed eaves, four louvred lucarnes, and a tall weathervane crowns the belfry. A narrow stair turret adjoins to the south-west with a lean-to roof and a chamfered south doorway with a slit window above and two further slit windows in its west side. The vestry also has a lean-to roof with a rectangular window in its north side and a round-arched chamfered doorway at its west end.

The nave and chancel retain some medieval masonry in their side elevations. Large gabled buttresses mark the division between nave and chancel. The nave has four lancets in its north side and three lancets in its south side, all sharing a continuous hoodmould. The chancel has two shallow buttresses at its east end with a sill string running between them. Above the string are three stepped lancets beneath a pointed archway, with quatrefoils pierced above each outer lancet. Two slit windows pierce the gable apex. The south elevation of the chancel has two lancets with a pointed doorway and hoodmould on ornate stops between them. The south porch is gabled with angle buttresses, a chamfered pointed archway, and 4-light windows in both side elevations. Within the south doorway is a round-arched head of two orders on imposts.

Interior: The pointed chancel arch is heavily moulded timber with a quatrefoil frieze on the intrados, supported on moulded stone corbels. The tower arch is pointed and simply detailed. The nave roof features three arch-braced collar trusses with braces forming complete semi-circular archways, and pairs of straight moulded wind-braces. The chancel has a barrel roof. A stone reredos features a three-bay blind arcade of pointed arches on engaged columns. There is a cusped pointed piscina and a simple arcaded and traceried rood screen. The octagonal stone font is probably 14th century with a hollowed under-edge and quatrefoiled stem. The four-sided pulpit is 19th century. A semi-octagonal oak almsbox is probably 17th century, and a 16th-century parish chest is recorded in the vestry.

Memorials in the nave include a mid-18th-century memorial and two early 19th-century memorials to members of the Knight family; two early 19th-century and one mid-19th-century memorial to the Pryce family, one of which is large with a moulded cornice surmounted by an urn; and a mid-19th-century memorial to John Arding.