Church Of St Luke

The Church of St Luke is a parish church, likely dating to the 14th century. It was largely rebuilt in 1863 by George Colley of London. The church is constructed of sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has a machine-tiled roof with decorative ridge tiles and gable-end parapets incorporating cross finials. It consists of a west tower, a three-bay nave, a north vestry, and a two-bay chancel, all executed in the Decorated style.

The three-stage west tower features strings and diagonal corner buttresses with offsets. The lower stage serves as a west porch with a pointed doorway of four chamfered orders and a hoodmould with foliated stops. A two-light window is located in the south elevation. The second stage contains a two-light window on each elevation, except the east, with the west window having a hoodmould with block stops and a clockface on the west elevation. The belfry stage has pointed, louvred bell chamber openings topped by an embattled parapet. A staircase projection is situated at the north-east corner. The nave incorporates a chamfered plinth band, a moulded sill string, and a hollow chamfered eaves cornice. Large gabled buttresses with offsets are present at each end of the north and south elevations, along with smaller buttresses dividing the bays. The windows are all of two lights with hoodmoulds and block stops. The north vestry, at the junction with the chancel, is gabled and features a lancet window at its north end, with a pointed doorway of two chamfered orders on its west side. The chancel’s lower walls likely retain some earlier masonry. The east gable has an offset at sill level and a four-light window with a hoodmould and head stops. Two lancets are present in the south elevation and one in the north elevation. A four-centred opening to the north-west of the chancel has been blocked.

Inside, the chancel arch has two chamfered orders, the inner supported on short colonnettes on corbels, and the tower arch has three chamfered orders. The nave features five arch-braced moulded intermediate collar and tie-beam trusses with arch-braces, struts, and a V-strut above the collar with a pendant finial at its base. The east window incorporates a hoodmould and nookshafts with foliated capitals. Other features include a 14th-century octagonal stone font with a moulded underside, a circa-1700 parish chest, an octagonal 19th-century stone pulpit, and a medieval stoup. Memorial tablets are located throughout the church, including one to Cecilia Watson (died 1705-6), one to William Watson (1688-9), two late 18th-century memorials in the tower (one with an urn relief), a memorial to William Cook (died 1766), and a memorial to Sarah Wyatt Watling (died 1830), as well as an illegible sarcophagus relief.