Church Of St Weonard

Church of St Weonard

Parish church of St Weonard comprises a 13th-century nave with a 16th-century west tower, south porch, north chapel and north aisle, and a largely late 19th-century chancel. The church was restored in 1875 and 1884, when the chancel was extended and a vestry added. The building is constructed of square sandstone rubble and sandstone ashlar with stone slate roofs, and consists of a west tower, three-bay nave, continuous north aisle and north chapel, chancel, south vestry and south porch.

The west tower is a prominent feature with an embattled parapet, moulded plinth and diagonal buttresses with offsets. It rises in three stages, each slightly recessed above dividing moulded strings. The first stage contains an entirely restored 16th-century style west window of four ogeed cinquefoiled lights set in a deep concave reveal under a two-centred head with label, a square-head loop to the south side, and a water-spout to the north side set beneath another at parapet level. The second stage has a central chamfered lancet to each cardinal face just above the lower string. The top stage features Y-tracery to each of the four belfry openings and waterspouts projecting from the upper strings to the east-centre of the north and south sides and north-centre of the west side.

The nave has a raised south wall with a 13th-century trefoiled single light to each side of the south porch and a two-light late 19th-century cinquefoiled window with label next to the east side. The vestry gable towards the south contains a three-light cinquefoiled window with label and four-centred head, and a two-light ogeed trefoiled window under a square head to the west. The south doorway to the vestry passage has a two-centred chamfered head, with the passage lit from the east by a three-light window under a four-centred head.

The chancel has a south window of two cinquefoiled ogeed lights under a square head. The 16th-century east window has been re-set and has three cinquefoiled lights under a round head with label. The 16th-century north window is square-headed with two cinquefoiled lights and ball-flower decoration to the lintol.

The north chapel has a four-light cinquefoiled ogeed east window under a round head with drops to chamfer stops and quatrefoil patterns to each label stop, a feature repeated in two other openings of the north aisle. The north wall of the north chapel and aisle displays, from east to west: a three-light cinquefoiled window under a square head, a similar four-light window, a north doorway with four-centred head above which are incised mouldings, a label with quatrefoiled stops and hollow chamfered jambs, a two-light restored ogeed window with ball-flowers on the lintol (copied from a re-used lintol in the chancel), and a west window similar to the chapel's east window but of three lights and less round-headed.

The south porch has diagonal buttresses and a chamfered two-centred outer arch. It contains two trefoiled ogeed lights with square heads, one to each return wall, and pegged collar-rafter roof trusses. The south doorway has chamfered jambs and an almost triangular head above which is a small trefoiled niche.

Interior: The nave roof is 19th-century with corbelled ties, arched braces and collars with central struts above. The north chapel and aisle have a continuous 16th-century ceiled barrel roof with moulded ribs between moulded wall plates dividing the ceiling into squares. The chancel has a 19th-century waggon roof.

The chapel arch is two-centred with two orders, the inner rounded and the outer chamfered. A four-bay nave arcade has octagonal piers and part octagonal responds supporting two-centred chamfered arches.

An early 16th-century chancel screen has linenfold panels beneath each of two open bays to either side of the restored central entrance, with running vine frieze to the top rail. Similar screens divide the north chapel from south and west, the latter having 14th-century linenfold panels to its dado.

The chancel contains a trefoiled piscina with two-centred head, late 17th-century altar rails and a 17th-century chair with characteristic arched ornament.

The north chapel has 17th-century benches, a dugout chest with heavy hinges and two lids, a cinquefoil-headed piscina without a drain to the south-east, a 13th-century slab with cross-in-circle and a chalice, and an east window with stained glass depicting the Crucifixion, restored in 1875 in memory of Peter Rickards Mynors of Treago.

Several wall monuments to the Mynors are present, including a brass on the side of the arch into the chancel to Roger Mynors, dated 1684, and their hatchment. A praying 16th-century figure stands above a cinquefoiled niche in the north wall at the junction of the south aisle and chapel.

The pulpit is 17th-century, partly restored and seven-parts-octagonal. The font is 15th-century, consisting of an octagonal bowl with quatrefoils to each face on an octagonal stem and a square, probably 19th-century, plinth.

In the west tower, the tower arch has jambs with recessed pyramidal chamfer stops at the bottom. The south-west doorway to the newel has a four-centred head beneath a square lintol with acanthus and bestial decoration in the spandrels. Royal arms hang over the south door of the nave on a panel inscribed Semper Eadem.