Church Of St Thomas Beckett

Church of St Thomas Beckett

A parish church of late 12th-century origins, substantially rebuilt and enlarged during the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with some 16th-century alterations and a major restoration in 1879. The building comprises a chancel, nave, and south tower.

The church is constructed of coursed and squared rubble for the chancel and nave, with ashlar used for the tower and nave parapet. The chancel roof is covered with 20th-century tile, while the nave roof is slate.

The chancel, rebuilt in the early 13th century and lengthened in the late 13th century, consists of three bays. It features a chamfered plinth to the east, offset angle buttresses, and a coped gable to the east crowned with a 19th-century cross at the apex. A 13th-century hollow-moulded corbel table runs along the wall, decorated with carved grotesques and beast and human heads. The east wall contains a late 13th-century window of three stepped lancets with bar tracery of three cusped roundels, all with edge roll-mould; the pointed surround has two orders and a hood mould with human head labels. A small trefoil appears above the window. The south wall has a late 13th-century priests' doorway with two hollow-moulded orders and broach stops, featuring a pointed arch with ramped hood mould and labels, and a relieving arch above it; the original door has been replaced with a 19th-century plank door. Above and to the right, towards the centre of the south wall, sits a single-chamfered lancet with rounded hood mould and carved head labels. Further right is a 13th-century window of lights with single trefoil tracery (now distorted) and hood-mould with carved head labels. To the left of the priests' doorway is a 15th-century square-headed window of two cusped ogee-headed lights with hood mould and labels. The north wall's left section contains a late 13th-century window of two cusped and hollow-moulded lights with tracery within a hollow-moulded surround, topped by a rounded hood-mould with carved head labels. At the centre and right of the north wall are early 13th-century lancets; the central one has a hood mould. The interior of the chancel preserves fine moulded rere-arches and hood moulds with carved head and foliage labels on the east and easternmost windows of the north and south walls. A moulded corbel flanks the east window, with a further carved head corbel on the north wall. Below the easternmost north window is a square niche. The south wall contains a 13th-century cusped, hollow-moulded piscina with a bowl supported by a worn carved head. The 13th-century chancel arch, probably rebuilt in the late 19th century, has two chamfered orders with moulded bases and imposts; at the apex of the hood mould to the west is a carved pair of heads. The 19th-century chancel roof is supported on moulded corbels. 19th-century stained glass decorates the south chancel windows, and two 19th-century wall tablets hang on the chancel walls.

The nave, partly dating from the 12th century but largely rebuilt in the 15th and 19th centuries, comprises three bays with a 15th-century clerestory. It has a crude plinth to the north, offset buttresses, a moulded string course, and an embattled parapet. The south wall, partially within the tower, contains a restored 14th-century pointed doorway with a 19th-century plank door. To the right of the tower stands a late 13th-century pointed window of two cusped lights and a central quatrefoil within a many-moulded surround and hood mould. To the left of a porch (position suggested) is a restored 15th-century window with a 19th or 20th-century square head. The north wall features a 12th-century semi-circular arched doorway with chamfered surround, hood mould, and relieving arch. To its left is a window of approximately 1500, set in a shallow projection topped with a stone slate roof. This window is square-headed with three depressed ogee-headed and cusped lights featuring mouchette tracery and a moulded hood with labels. The clerestory to north and south contains 15th-century windows. The north clerestory has three square-headed windows, each with two ogee-headed cusped lights and hood moulds with labels. The south clerestory has three square-headed windows: that to the left of the tower has two lights, the centre window has two depressed ogee-headed cusped lights, and the right window also has two depressed ogee-headed cusped lights but with mouchette tracery; all have hood moulds with labels. The rebuilt west wall carries a similar, part-restored 15th-century square-headed window of three lights with restored hood mould and labels; above it sits a 19th-century cusped roundel. All nave windows have chamfered rere-arches, and the window of approximately 1500 to the north has stone projections against each splay. Beneath the chamfered sill of the easternmost window in the south wall is a small piscina with a shouldered-arch head. A stair turret doorway to the west of the main south doorway has a chamfered, pointed surround and hood mould with labels. The 19th-century nave roof features traceried spandrels and is supported on 15th-century moulded corbels; further corbels to the east include a carved bearded head to the north. A wall tablet dated 1803 hangs in the south nave wall.

The south tower, constructed in the 14th century, has two stages with a moulded plinth, offset diagonal buttresses, a string course dividing the first and second stages, and a moulded corbel table with broken gargoyles. It is topped by a coped parapet. The south face contains a 14th-century pointed doorway with a many-moulded surround and hood mould with broken labels, showing worn carving at the apex; the door is 19th-century plank. Within the tower to the east is a square-headed window with a single ogee-headed cusped light and hood mould with labels. Above the doorway to the south is a 14th-century square-headed window of two ogee-headed cusped lights with quatrefoil tracery and hood mould with labels. A single ogee-headed light opens to the east. In the north-west angle of the tower, a stair turret with ogee-headed loops rises to bell chamber level. The bell chamber features 14th-century openings, each square-headed with two ogee-headed cusped lights and worn hood moulds with labels, topped by stone slate louvres.