Church Of St Lawrence

The Church of St Lawrence is a building comprised of a tower dated 1771, designed by Samuel Eglinton, and a church dating from 1875-1876, designed by John Gibson. The tower is constructed of limestone ashlar with contrasting limestone dressings, while the church itself is of regular coursed rock-faced limestone with ironstone dressings. Both are roofed with tiles and have coped gable parapets.

The church includes a chancel, nave, north aisle and chapel, a south porch, and a west tower. The chancel is three bays and the nave is four bays, built in a Gothic Revival Decorated style. Key details include a splayed plinth, buttresses of two offsets, a moulded sill course, and a splayed cornice throughout, except on the tower. The chancel’s three-light east window has bar tracery, with the sill course stepped down on either side. Buttresses are flush with the north and south walls and topped with gablets. On the south side, a narrow door is set within a chamfered surround, topped with a wider hood mould. The two-light windows have cusped intersecting tracery. The open-fronted south porch is of stone and timber, featuring an arch and glazed panels with double-leaf doors in a chamfered surround. The nave and aisle have two-light windows with reticulated tracery, while the chapel's east window is also two-light. A north window on the chapel side features three small trefoiled lancets.

The three-stage tower has splayed string courses. The south door is Gothic with four panels, set within a moulded four-centred surround. The second stage features a large blind quatrefoil, and the west side has a large window of the same design. The second-stage windows and bell openings have Y-tracery, leaded lights, and louvres. A crenellated parapet tops the tower, featuring a moulded cornice.

Internally, the chancel and nave share a sill course that continues over doors and arches as a hood mould. The roof is arched and scissor-braced, with subsidiary braces and carved stone corbels. The chancel has a quatrefoil frieze below the east window, and a south piscina. An arched north recess is marked by attached shafts. Arched openings lead to the chapel. The chancel arch, constructed of two chamfered orders with a hood mould, has half-round shafts with half-octagon capitals. The four-bay arcade has chamfered arches and round shafts, with moulded capitals; there are no responds or imposts. Double-leaved doors provide access to the tower within a chamfered arch, set within a double-chamfered straight surround, with an inscription above. These are unified with a two-light traceried balcony space above, featuring a quatrefoil balustrade. The aisle has a tie-beam roof and the chapel a coupled rafter roof.

Further fittings include a mosaic reredos, an encaustic tile sanctuary floor, wrought iron altar rails, an octagonal font with attached shafts, a late 19th/20th century Perpendicular style pulpit, a contemporary lectern and pews. Stained glass is found in the chancel east, nave south-east and central windows, and the chapel east window, dating to approximately 1875. Chapel north windows were installed around 1894. An old armorial glass window has been re-set into the east window of the aisle. A headstone, carved from limestone and dating to 1714, is attached to the chancel's south wall. It has a scalloped top with a winged head and two bosses, set within a shaped, scrolled, pedimented frame with drops.