Church of The Holy Cross

Church of The Holy Cross

Parish church with a 12th-century core, minor early 13th-century alterations, early 14th-century additions and alterations, some minor 16th-century rebuilding and mid-19th-century additions. The church was restored in 1878 by Sir Arthur Blomfield. The building displays four main phases of masonry: roughly coursed rubble, probably 12th century; coursed and roughly squared large sandstone blocks of the early 14th century; 16th-century ashlar; and 19th-century rock-faced ashlar. The roof is plain tile with coped verges.

The plan comprises a four-bay nave and single-bay vestry in one block, a north aisle and vestry in one block, and a south-west porch tower.

The south-west tower dates from the mid-19th century. It has three stages marked by strings, with pilaster buttresses at the outer angles that die into the tower immediately above the level of the first string. The tower has dentilled eaves and a low-pitch pyramidal roof that gives it a strangely Italianate appearance. The pointed south door has three roll-moulded orders, the central one with a fillet, and a roll-moulded dripstone with block stops. The second stage has paired lancets; the belfry window is two-light with plate tracery.

The nave has a 19th-century lancet on the south side and two two-light pointed windows of 1878 with Decorated tracery in a style of circa 1290. A tall two-light west window of 1878 also has Decorated tracery. Between nave and north aisle stands a 19th-century buttress. The west gable has been rebuilt, possibly as a result of the 1878 restoration.

The early 14th-century chancel has diagonal buttresses to the eastern corners. The south door has an ogee arch. North and south windows have Y-tracery. The 19th-century east window has three lights with cusped intersecting tracery and scroll-moulded dripstone with block stops. The east gable has also been rebuilt, possibly in the 19th century.

The north aisle and vestry contain four north windows of similar character but of three different dates. Each consists of two trefoil-headed lights with sunken spandrels. The easternmost is 19th-century and belongs to the vestry extension of 1858; the next window to the west is 14th century; the other two are 16th century, though the easternmost was restored in 1878. At the west end is a 13th-century lancet; at the east end is a painted vestry door with a diagonal buttress at the corner.

The interior features a 12th-century nave arcade of semi-circular single-step arches on cylindrical columns with multi-scalloped capitals and square abaci. The easternmost capital remains uncut. An early 14th-century pointed chancel arch has quarter-round moulded orders and engaged semi-octagonal piers with moulded bases and faceted capitals. The 19th-century nave roof has tie beams and arch-braced collars with king-struts and king-posts between tie beams and collars and between collars and ridge piece. Another 13th-century lancet at the east end of the north aisle now opens into the vestry. A 19th-century lean-to roof covers the aisle. A 19th-century collar-rafter roof spans the chancel, with straight braces to the collars, arch braces to the centre truss, and arch braces to each end truss.

The fittings include a 14th-century octagonal stone font with blind trefoil-headed arcade to the basin, and an iron-bound oak chest hewn from a single log, probably 13th century. A 13th-century stone effigy of a civilian stands in the porch.

The monuments include: a bracketed aedicular tablet to Edward and Ann Corbett, erected in 1735, with fluted pilasters, broken pediment and coat of arms; a wooden tablet to Edward Careswell, died 1690; a tablet to Joseph Stokes, died 1806, with reeded pilasters capped by an urn on a pedestal; an elaborate cartouche to Thomyns Dickins, died 1701; a tablet to Mary and Hannah Corbett, died 1792 and 1799, made by W. Stephens of Worcester; a tablet to Edward Corbett, erected in 1767 by Charles Corbett; and Charles Corbett's own tablet, he died in 1786. The tablets to Edward and Charles Corbett appear to have come from the same workshop.