Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

This is a medieval church substantially rebuilt and enlarged over several centuries. The main structure dates from the mid to late 12th century, with significant additions in the late 15th century (tower and clerestory), mid 18th century (chancel lengthening), and early 20th century (north aisle in 1913). The church was restored in 1894 and 1902. A south porch was added in the late 19th or early 20th century.

The building comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch and west tower. The main fabric is red sandstone ashlar, though the western part of the chancel is coursed rubble. The porch features timber framing in its upper part with rendered infill. The chancel and porch have plain-tile roofs; the aisle has a slate roof; and the nave roof is hidden by a parapet.

The church is primarily Perpendicular in style. The chancel is 2 bays and the nave is 3 bays. The chancel has diagonal buttresses of two offsets and an east gable with a hipped roof that rises taller and steeper behind the parapet. A small quatrefoil east window sits within a moulded roundel. Both chancel and nave have 12th-century pilaster buttresses. On the south side of the chancel is a blocked Gothick doorway with a moulded ogee arch, alongside a central buttress. The western part of the chancel contains a 14th-century two-light window with reticulated tracery and a hood mould with head stops on each side, with a blocked doorway also featuring a hood mould. A trefoiled south-west lancet is also present. The north side has a re-set 15th-century three-light window with intersecting tracery in the eastern part, while the western half has imitation ashlar render, a two-light window and a straight-headed 14th-century low-side window.

The porch has fretted barge boards and four-centred arched double-leaf doors. Inside is a simple 12th-century doorway with a round arch and imposts, fitted with an 18th-century plank door. The nave has three-light south windows: the eastern is 15th-century with a four-centred arch; the western is late 15th-century with a Tudor arch. The clerestory consists of three straight-headed windows on each side, each containing two trefoiled lights. A moulded cornice and embattled parapet with two gargoyles and the remains of another, plus a crocketed pinnacle above the porch, runs along the nave. A similar pinnacle stands at the north-east corner. The east gable of an earlier roof rises above the parapet.

The north aisle has a lean-to roof with a lead flat to its upper part; the topmost sections of the east and west parapets are treated as flying buttresses. The aisle has a three-light east window with Perpendicular tracery. Its north side contains a re-set 12th-century doorway of two orders—the inner a plain arch with imposts, the outer with a roll moulding and nook shafts with fluted capitals—fitted with an ancient plank door with strap hinges. A re-set 13th-century lancet stands to the east, with a three-light window to the west. The west window is a three-light traceried mullioned design.

The large west tower has a plinth with two hollow mouldings and full-height diagonal buttresses of two offsets. The west doorway comprises three moulded orders and is fitted with a late 19th-century Gothic traceried fanlight and half-glazed door. A three-light west window is present. Both door and window have hood moulds with lion's-head stops. Small chamfered rectangular openings appear roughly halfway up each side. The bell openings are two-light with Tudor arches, transoms, hood moulds and louvres. A moulded cornice and embattled parapet with plain 18th-century pinnacles crowns the tower, which is topped with a wrought-iron weather-vane.

Interior

The interior is plastered. The eastern half of the chancel has a roved cornice with a frieze of alternating gilded heads and Tudor flowers, and a deep coved ceiling with moulded panels and a central roundel featuring a dove in high relief. A plain round arch with jambs forms pedestals for two monuments. The western part of the chancel has a panelled ceiling and part of a blocked 12th-century window.

The 12th-century chancel arch comprises two roll and hollow-moulded orders with a hood mould. The inner order has plain jambs; the north abacus is carved with a man being eaten by two monsters. The outer order has nook-shafts with capitals of volutes and flutes or upright leaves; the north capital is damaged and the south appears to have been restored.

The nave has a very shallow-pitched Perpendicular roof with moulded tie beams, braces and purlins, and gilded carved bosses. One timber is dated 1786. The tower arch comprises two chamfered orders. The north arcade of 1913 is 3 bays with two orders, round piers and octagonal capitals; the arches lack responds. The aisle also contains a re-set 12th-century arch with nail-head ornament, now without jambs, positioned in the north wall.

Mid 18th-century fittings include a reredos with two black and gilded Tuscan columns, an open semi-circular pediment with a winged head at its apex, and a tympanum with the inscription IHS pierced so that light from the east window shines through. The reredos also features a 17th or 18th-century painting. A semi-oval communion rail with column balusters is present, along with two-tier fielded panelled chancel stalls with H-hinges and some adapted fielded panelled pew-ends.

Late 19th-century fittings comprise an elaborate traceried octagonal wood pulpit and a carved octagonal stone font with a granite clustered shaft.

Stained glass in the chancel north window consists of jumbled medieval fragments.

Monuments

The chancel contains monuments positioned on the pedestals of the central arch. On the north is a monument to James Ludford (died 1699) and John Ludford, erected 1700. It comprises a large black pedestal with inscription and cartouches of arms to east and west, topped with a white marble urn with cartouche and heads.

On the south is a monument to Samuel Bracebridge Ludford (died 1727), erected 1761, with a white marble pedestal featuring moulded sunk panels and an urn with cartouche and phoenix.

Wall monuments in the chancel east wall, north of the reredos, commemorate John Bracebridge Ludford (died 1775) and family, with a Gothic design probably of early 19th-century date. South of the reredos is a monument to John Newdigate Ludford (died 1825), erected 1829, by William Hollins of Birmingham, comprising a white marble panel with segmental pediment and a draped sarcophagus below.

The chancel north wall carries a monument to Elizabeth Ludford (died 1741), featuring a panel framed by pilaster strips with drapery, urn finials, two winged heads and a section of segmental pediment.

Three hatchments are displayed on the nave south wall.