Church Of St Edith

Church of St Edith

This church originated as part of a priory founded in 1077 for Benedictines of St Nicholas at Angers, and was transferred to Carthusians in 1397. The building comprises a 13th-century chancel with the remainder rebuilt in the late 14th century. Considerable alterations were undertaken in the late 15th century, and the upper part of the tower dates to this period. The tower received an early 18th-century parapet. The church was re-roofed in the late 16th century. A substantial restoration was carried out in 1869, including the addition of a vestry, at a cost of eight thousand pounds. The spire fell in 1701.

The structure is built of regular coursed and ashlar red sandstone, with the upper part of the tower constructed of grey sandstone. The roofs are hidden by moulded cornices and parapets. The plan comprises a nave and chancel in one, aisles and chapels in one, a south-west tower, a south porch, and a south-east vestry. The architectural character combines Decorated and Perpendicular styles.

The church displays a 7-bay nave and chancel with 6-bay aisles and chapels. The chancel has a splayed plinth and massive diagonal buttresses of two offsets, with a shallow-pitched roof. The 3-light east window has 19th-century geometrical tracery, a moulded sill course stepped down to left and right, a hood mould with return stops, and a string course at springing. The north side of the chancel has two small blocked Tudor-arched windows and a blocked arched window above. A 3-light Perpendicular south window has a transom and some renewed tracery.

The low vestry has a splay plinth and clasping buttresses. It features a chamfered east doorway with hood mould and plank door, and straight-headed 2-light Perpendicular windows to the east and south.

The south aisle and porch have moulded and splay plinths. The aisle contains three large buttresses of two offsets with crocketed pinnacles and smaller 19th-century east buttresses. Nineteenth-century windows have been inserted. A 3-light Perpendicular east window has deep hollow-chamfered jambs and hood mould. The south-east window has cusped Y-tracery. Three large 3-light windows display unusual curvilinear tracery.

A large 2-storey Decorated porch abuts the tower, with a stepped gable rebuilt in the 19th century. It features a large doorway of two moulded orders, chamfered back to square bases. The hood mould continues to form the sill course of the tower's south window. A small 2-light window above has renewed tracery, and a small narrow ogee lancet is positioned to the east.

The north aisle's north wall was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. Various splay plinths at differing heights are evident, along with a massive buttress between the aisle and nave. The aisle contains 3-light windows throughout, and the largely renewed Perpendicular east window has a sill course. The north side has east and west angle buttresses; the west buttress has a gablet. Four 19th-century full-height buttresses of two offsets are present, with a smaller buttress between the second and third bays. The first, fifth, and sixth bays have varying Perpendicular tracery; the second, third, and fourth bays have reticulated tracery. The first three bays have an inverted splay sill course. A Perpendicular west window has panel tracery. The aisles have lean-to roofs.

The nave has a deeply-recessed west window with 19th-century bar tracery.

The massive tower is of two stages with a double splay and moulded plinth. It is buttressed on the south, north, and south-east sides by massive buttresses of four offsets. The high first stage features a very large 3-light west window with flowing tracery and deep splayed jambs and sill. Above is a small 2-light Perpendicular window with transom, and the sill course continues across the buttresses. The south side is similar but with a 2-light window. A 3-sided stair projection is present. The second stage has moulded 2-light Perpendicular bell openings with transoms and 19th-century Gothic pierced wood openings within. The breakfront parapet has shaped gables with finials and crocketed pinnacles with weathervanes, and trefoiled lancets, mostly blind.

The interior comprises a 3-bay chancel with a raised floor, an Early English piscina, and 3-bay sedilia with angle and detached shafts and inner trefoiled arches. A blocked Tudor-arched door stands between them. The north wall has Tudor-arched recesses, formerly windows. A 19th-century segmental arched opening leads to a chapel with four traceried lights.

The nave and chancel have a moulded Perpendicular roof with tracery, supported on stone corbels. The interior contains a tierceron-star-vault with moulded ribs and angle shafts. Perpendicular arcades comprise six bays to the north and five bays to the south, with outer chamfered and inner moulded arches dying into moulded lozenge-section piers. The south arcade begins one bay further east and cuts into the south aisle tower arch. The nave's south-west tower arch has two moulded orders, the outer dying into the wall and the inner segmental pointed with chamfered jambs. Two-bay chapels are divided from the aisles by late 19th-century stone and traceried wood screens.

The north chapel contains large 14th-century image niches with elaborate canopies in its east angles. The aisle has blocked Tudor-arched doors, including one above, and a blocked 4-centred door to the left. The south chapel has an ogee piscina and a 19th-century ogee east door. The west tower arch of the aisle has a chamfered outer and two moulded inner orders. The aisle and chapel roofs have moulded beams and purlins, some renewed. The tower has a tierceron-star-vault.

Fittings are almost entirely of the late 19th century. These include a stone reredos with alabaster cross, Gothic brass altar rails, an octagonal stone pulpit, and painted Royal arms of Charles II, dated 1660, on the chancel's north wall. An iron-bound chest and a charities board dated 1714 are also present. The stained glass in the east window dates to 1869, the west window is by Hardman, and the aisles contain late 19th-century glass.

Monuments include the upper half of a defaced 14th-century effigy in the north aisle. The north chapel contains alabaster tombs of the Feilding family with recumbent effigies: Sir William, 1547, and his wife, with a tomb chest featuring square shafts and shields; and Basil, 1580, and his wife, with a tomb chest showing mourners and rudimentary balusters. The north aisle holds monuments to Lady Augusta Feilding, 1848, with a reclining effigy, and the 7th Earl, 1865, and Countess of Denbigh, with effigies in relief. Both of these latter monuments are signed Mary Grant 1881. The south chapel contains a hatchment of Sir Thomas George Skipwith, 1790.