Church Of St George

Church of St. George

Parish church with a 12th-century core, enlarged in the 13th and 14th centuries, substantially altered in the 17th century, and comprehensively restored and added to in 1877 by G.E. Street.

Construction and materials: The building is of coursed limestone and sandstone rubble with tile patching in the tower, and roughly squared limestone dressings. The 19th-century work uses squared and snecked limestone with ashlar dressings. Roofs are of graded stone slate, with separate coverings over the nave and North aisle, and a lean-to roof over the South aisle.

Plan and layout: The church comprises a 4-bay nave, a 13th-century North aisle, a South aisle with clerestory rebuilt in neo-Norman style in 1877, a 2-bay lancet-style chancel of 1877, a 14th-century North porch remodelled in the 17th and 19th centuries, and a squat square west tower remodelled in the 17th century.

Tower: The tower has 4 stages, of which 3 are expressed externally. Clasping West buttresses rise to the second stage, with that to the North-west encasing the newel staircase. Two further buttresses to North and South with offsets date from the 18th and 19th centuries. A string course marks the division between stages. The probably 17th-century roof is of plain tile with a double-pyramidal form; the top stage is separated from the bottom by shaped balusters with louvres between, and is surmounted by a lead-sheathed globe finial and weathervane. The belfry openings are twin lancets; the third stage has a West lancet and the second stage a chamfered round-arched window. A large recessed West doorway with round arch has 19th-century boarded doors, impost blocks, and a hoodmould with weathered carved stops and what is probably a re-set weathered carved head at the apex. The inscription above the door reads "ISAAC MORGAN THOMAS POWIS CHURCHWARDENS (sic) 1666".

North aisle: This comprises 4 bays to the left of the porch, with lancet windows and 19th-century buttresses. The second bay from the left has a chamfered-arched boarded doorway with capitals and a dogtooth-enriched hoodmould with carved stops; a reset carved head is positioned in the wall above the left jamb, which is dated "HB RB 1658". To the left of this doorway is a cinquefoil-arched tomb recess with a ball-flower enriched hoodmould. To the right is a 12th-century doorway with two orders of roll-moulded jambs and carved capitals, a moulded round arch, and a hoodmould with carved stops; it has 19th-century boarded doors.

North porch: The entrance has a double-chamfered segmental arch dying into responds. A first-floor window contains 2 trefoiled lights. Planted timbers in the gable-end support a flagpole. The left-hand return front has a projection for an internal staircase and a 19th-century lancet. The right-hand return front has a 19th-century first-floor square-headed 2-light window.

North aisle and clerestory: The aisle and clerestory comprise 6 bays with round-arched windows, those in the clerestory positioned above the aisle buttresses. A doorway in the second bay from the left has a boarded door, one order of shafts with scalloped capitals, a round arch with roll moulding and chevron decoration. Round-arched windows appear at the East and West ends of the aisle.

Chancel: The chancel has 2 bays with lancet windows. Low clasping buttresses flank the East end, which has triple-stepped lancets under a continuous hoodmould with carved stops.

Interior: The nave has 4-bay North and South aisle arcades with circular piers and scalloped capitals. The recessed arches are slightly pointed with roll moulding to the inner arch, chevron decoration, and a continuous hoodmould to the nave face. The North-east arch has a square respond and simple impost moulding to the East; the South-west pier capital has small carved heads at its corners. A pointed tower arch with simple imposts rises above a round-arched window to the tower. The chancel has 1877 sedilia and piscina and a moulded-arched North doorway. A continuous 14-bay roof spans the nave and chancel, featuring double purlins, arch-bracing to collars, cusped V-struts, cusped wind braces forming quatrefoils, a ceilure over the altar, and carved winged angels to the wall plate. A probably re-sited 12th-century organ arch is located to the South-west. The North aisle has a 10-bay roof matching the nave.

Fittings: The church contains a circa 1877 reredos, canopied stalls, and a 1910 chancel screen, together with a North chapel screen. The 14th-century font, heavily restored in 1877, has 8 columns supporting an octagonal bowl and canopy. A 17th-century octagonal wooden pulpit features a high backplate and tester with pendant finials. Re-used 17th-century panelling in the North aisle chapel displays guilloche, lozenge and other decoration. A possibly 17th-century carved Coat of Arms appears in the wall to the right of the North-aisle chapel reredos, with a brass plaque above commemorating Robert Howard of 1653. Various late 18th and early 19th-century commemorative tablets are mounted on the West wall of the nave. 17th-century staircases in the tower have flat circular finials to square newel posts.