Church of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

A parish church built in 1861 by T Nicholson of Hereford, constructed on the site of earlier churches. It is built of coursed dressed sandstone rubble, partly snecked, with ashlar dressings, and features plain tiled roofs with parapets and cross-finials at the gable ends. The building is designed in the Decorated style.

The church comprises a south-west tower, a three-bay nave with a south aisle, and a two-bay chancel with a north vestry.

The south-west tower has three stages separated by three strings and stands on a chamfered plinth which continues around the building. It is flanked by gabled angled buttresses with offsets. The lowest stage contains a south doorway with a hood mould and head stops, flanked by two pairs of nookshafts with moulded capitals and bases; above the doorway the lower string is stepped. A similar door opens into the nave but without nookshafts. A 2-light west window is positioned above these doors. The second stage displays a cusped lancet with an ogee hood mould topped by a finial and foliated stops above the south doorway. The belfry stage features large 2-light louvred bell-chamber openings with hood moulds and head stops, with the second string forming a sill string to these openings. Above the third string sits a parapet. An ashlar broach spire with lucarnes crowns the tower. A lean-to addition on the east side of the tower houses the tower stairs, accessed through an interior door.

The nave has buttresses with offsets at the bay divisions, angled at the west end. A 4-light west window with hood mould and head stops is positioned above, with a quatrefoil opening in the gable apex. The north elevation contains three 2-light windows. The south aisle features two cross-gables interrupting the lean-to roof and parapet, two 3-light windows, and a rose window at the east end.

The chancel has diagonal buttresses with offsets at the east end. Its east window has 5 lights. A 2-light north-east window and two 2-light south windows are all equipped with hood moulds and head stops. A narrow doorway lies between the south windows.

The vestry is gabled and projects to the north-west with an eastern lean-to. It contains a 3-light window with a 4-centred head in the north gable end and a cusped lancet with an ogee head in the west end of the lean-to. A narrow doorway is in the east elevation, and steps lead down to a basement door.

The interior displays a pointed chancel arch on colonnettes with large foliated capitals, supported on head corbels. The two-bay aisle has a central circular pier with a foliated capital and moulded base. Wagon roofs extend throughout. The walls are faced with ashlar.

The church retains fittings mainly from the mid-19th century, with some mid-20th century replacements. These include an octagonal stone font with a panelled stem and cusped ogee-arched frieze around the basin, a hexagonal panelled pulpit, and a 17th-century altar table now kept in the vestry.

The memorials are of considerable historical interest. The south aisle contains four brass tablets of early and mid-17th-century date, mainly commemorating the Pennell family. A late 18th-century wall memorial to Margaret Nott is surmounted by a coat of arms. Early and mid-19th-century memorials to the Adams family are also present. On the west wall of the nave are a mid-18th-century memorial and two late 18th-century memorials. The north wall features a large memorial to Arthur Onslow (died 1817), which takes the form of an obelisk with a draped sarcophagus relief surmounted by a cloud with an angel or putto against a sunburst.

The first medieval church on this site was dedicated to All Saints and was destroyed by fire in the late 17th century. The second church, dedicated to St Lawrence, was destroyed partly through neglect and partly as a result of subsidence.