Church Of Saint Alphege

Church of Saint Alphege

A parish church dating from the late 12th century, with substantial rebuilding and enlargement from the late 13th century until the 16th century, followed by alterations in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

The church is constructed of red sandstone with later work in grey sandstone, beneath tile and terne-coated steel roofs. It is cruciform in plan, with a central crossing tower, nave and aisles to the west, transepts to the north and south, a chancel to the east, and a two-storey chantry chapel on the north side of the chancel.

The main entrance is through a north porch with a pointed archway under a deeply moulded surround and wrought iron gates dating from 1746. The porch is flanked by tall windows of Decorated tracery in the north aisle, separated by later buttresses, all beneath a continuous castellated parapet. The west front is dominated by a tall central window of Perpendicular style, originally dating from the 1530s but reconstructed in 1879, with the west door below flanked by tall buttresses and aisle windows. The south aisle features tall windows of Decorated tracery and, at its east end, a large eight-light flatheaded window, with a castellated parapet continuing along this elevation.

The north and south transepts, the chancel east window, and the east window of the chantry chapel all contain windows of cusped intersecting tracery. The south elevation of the chancel consists of four bays with two-light windows of cusped tracery under a continuous hoodmould, with a south door in a moulded surround showing evidence of a sanctuary ring below. The chantry chapel has windows in its north elevation matching the chancel style, and small trefoiled lancets lighting the crypt below.

The tower has blocked paired lancets at its lower stages, which are of coursed rubble, while its upper stage contains paired openings to the bell chamber, each with Perpendicular tracery beneath a continuous hoodmould. A projecting stair tower rises on the south face.

Internally, the nave is divided from the aisles by tall arcades of double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers. The west face of the tower shows the line of an earlier nave roof, and the present roof of 1535 has had its ceiling removed but retains bosses. The north aisle contains a chapel dedicated to Saint Thomas à Becket, fitted with a timber reredos in 18th-century style displaying a Crucifixion painting by Gaspar de Crayer (1584-1669), with a small piscina adjacent. The south aisle chapel of Saint Antony has a 16th-century stone reredos and a further piscina.

At the crossing, blocked openings to the west of the tower provide evidence of the original church. The opening between the crossing and south transept, now containing the vestry, houses a large organ in an early 18th-century case brought from Saint Martin's in the Bull Ring in Birmingham. Above the crossing is a timber ceiling with moulded beams and painted and gilded bosses, the central boss depicting the martyrdom of Saint Alphege. The north transept is divided into a sacristy and a chapel to Saint Katherine, the latter featuring a painted timber reredos and small piscina, with a repositioned 15th-century screen concealing the former chapel space which retains a small piscina.

The chancel has continuous hoodmoulds above its windows, with 20th-century painted wooden statues on carved stone corbels in the spaces where windows are absent, the hoodmould above forming trefoils. The roof is barrel vaulted and unceiled. Choir stalls occupy either side, and on the south of the altar is a piscina in an ornate carved surround under a damaged crocketted hood, with seats of a sedilia adjacent. A low door in a pointed surround on the north wall provides access to the crypt below the chantry chapel, which has a rib-vaulted ceiling supported on carved corbels and a fireplace at its west end. The east altar is understood to date from the original construction and contains an altar sepulchre sealed with lead. A further opening from the chancel leads up stairs to the Chantry Chapel of Saint Alphege, a tall space under a vaulted ceiling with large windows containing stained glass and a hoodmould above the windows matching that in the chancel, with a piscina beneath a pointed hood.

The church contains an extensive collection of fittings. Oak pews in the nave date from 1879, with a Mayor's Pew of 1954. The font at the west end is 13th century. The pulpit is early 17th century with blank arches, and the brass lectern dates from 1884. Hatchments to the Greswolde family hang above the tower arch, and a brass chandelier of 1706 hangs in the nave. The north aisle altar is a 17th-century chest. Memorials dating from the 16th century onwards, in brass, marble and incised slabs, are scattered throughout. The communion rail of 1679 features twisted balusters, carved foliage and pierced square panels. The reredos behind the altar in the chancel is a repositioned 15th-century screen from the north transept.

Stained glass throughout the church includes the east window by William Wailes, the west window and large south aisle windows by Charles Eamer Kempe (1879 and 1901 respectively), and the east window in the chantry chapel of 1908 by Bertram Lamplugh.