Church Of St Benedict Biscop

Church of St. Benedict Biscop

This is a parish church with a 14th-century west tower, a north aisle probably dating from the 16th century, and the remainder rebuilt in 1866–67 by the architect George Edmund Street, who designed it in a late 13th-century style. The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar with plain tile roofs featuring coped verges.

The plan comprises a west tower, a five-bay nave with north and south aisles, a north-side chapel, a south porch, a two-bay chancel with a north vestry and organ chamber.

The west tower stands on a stepped plinth with three moulded strings and a crenellated parapet. Above this rises a recessed stone spire ornamented with crocketed corner pinnacles and three tiers of lucarnes (roof lights) with ogee hoods. The west window, dating from circa 1340, is pointed with two cinquefoil-headed lights and curvilinear tracery. Gargoyles project from each face of the tower at the base of the parapet.

The north aisle features two pointed windows with deeply hollowed surrounds and restored Perpendicular tracery. At its east end stands a blocked door with, above it, a restored three-light window with a Tudor arch and, higher still, a trefoil-headed loop.

The north chapel has two pointed north windows, each of two lights with Decorated tracery, and a blocked pointed door to the east.

The south aisle displays paired lancet windows to the south and west with cusped heads, and a pointed east window of four lancet lights with cusped heads and plate tracery. A central buttress ornaments the south side.

The gabled south porch has a pointed arch with dog-tooth moulded hood and a stiff-leaf-encrusted frieze at the springing level of the arch.

The chancel's south side features a buttressed bay division and pointed three-light windows with late Geometric tracery. Its east window resembles that of the south aisle and includes a roll-moulded dripstone with stiff-leaf stops. The vestry and organ chamber to the north have a pointed east door with scroll-moulded dripstone and stiff-leaf stops, and an east window of three trefoil-headed lights.

The interior reveals nave arcades with cylindrical columns on moulded bases, capitals carved with stiff-leaf ornament, and pointed arches of two orders—the outer chamfered and the inner plain—with nailhead-ornamented hood moulds. A pointed tower arch of two chamfered orders is filled with an early 20th-century Perpendicular-traceried screen; in front of this stands a rectangular room of circa 1911 with glazed panels.

Collar-purlin roofs cover the nave and north aisles, with the nave roof collars braced with straight braces. The south aisle has a king-post roof. In the north aisle, two pointed arches of two chamfered orders spring from a central cylindrical column with moulded base and stiff-leaf capital, opening into the north chapel; a similar arch at the east end houses the organ. The aisle windows feature segmental rear-arches with chamfered ribs. The north side of the chancel retains a large screened arch and a pointed doorway, with a trefoil-headed niche on the north side of the sanctuary. The south-east chancel window has a ribbed rear arch springing from banded shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and moulded bases. A panelled and painted wagon roof spans the chancel.

Fittings include a stone font probably by Street, with a basin displaying trefoil-headed arcading on clustered, filleted shafts on moulded bases, and an elaborate wooden font cover with a spire. A small Italian early 16th-century relief stands in the south aisle. The pulpit, also by Street, is circular and constructed of stone on marble shafts with trefoil-headed arcading, marble shafts, and stiff-leaf capitals. A low decorative wrought-iron rood screen and gates are present, together with a brass altar rail on decorative wrought-iron supports with elaborate brackets. A brass eagle lectern dates from circa 1898.

The organ, dating from 1870, was made by Bevington & Sons of Soho, London.

A notable monument is a large tablet to Richard Bayley Marsh by the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey, which depicts a mourning woman beside an urn on a pedestal bearing a profile medallion.

All windows in the chancel and north and south aisles contain stained glass. The aisle windows are mostly by Kempe, whilst the chancel windows and the east window of the south aisle are by Clayton & Bell.