Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

This is a parish church with 12th-century origins, rebuilt in the early 14th century while incorporating some 13th-century features. The building was restored in the mid-19th century and given a new spire in 1863 by A E Perkins. It is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble and sandstone ashlar with tiled roofs and gable end parapets with kneelers and cross finials.

The church comprises a west tower, a three-bay nave with a south porch, a two-bay chancel and a north vestry, all in the Decorated style.

The west tower was added at the end of the 14th century. In 1791 the original steeple was demolished, and the belfry stage and spire were built in 1863. The tower has three stages, with the two lower stages featuring angled corner buttresses that project beyond the belfry stage. The lowest stage has a pointed arched planked west doorway and ogee-arched lights in the north and south elevations. The second stage has an ogee-arched light in the west elevation. At the belfry stage the corners have cusped chamfers, with two-light louvred belfry openings and a moulded cornice above. The broach spire has four lucarnes with quatrefoil openings above, topped by a finial and weathervane.

The nave dates from around 1320. The north elevation has an off-centre buttress with offsets and three 19th-century two-light windows. The south elevation has a buttress with offsets on either side of a central porch and another at the east end. Between the porch and each buttress is a cusped lancet of 14th-century date, and there is a 14th-century two-light window between the easternmost buttresses.

The south porch is a 19th-century addition with flanking buttresses at the gable ends. It has a pointed arched doorway with reveals and columns in the jambs with moulded caps and bases. The side walls each have two quatrefoil lights. The south doorway is 19th-century, with a pointed arch, deep reveals and a painted inscription above that is now illegible.

The chancel was much rebuilt in the 19th century and has angled buttresses with offsets at the east end. It contains a 19th-century three-light east window and two lancets in the north and south elevations, all 13th-century except for the north-east one which is 19th-century and larger. In the south wall is a 13th-century door with a pointed arch.

The vestry is a 19th-century addition with a gable and chimney at the junction with the chancel roof. It has paired cusped lights in the gable end and a west doorway with a two-centred arch with raised flat head.

Interior features include a 19th-century chancel arch with a pointed profile. The columns have moulded caps and bases in the jambs. The tower arch has two massive orders rising from chamfered abaci. Both the arches and south doorway have painted inscriptions above them, dating from the 19th century.

The roofs date from the 19th century and have swept wind-braces above the wall-plate. Those in the chancel are cusped. The chancel contains a 13th-century piscina and a 17th-century altar table with linenfold carving. There are 19th-century altar rails with foliated decoration. The sill of the north-east window has an alabaster slab corbelled out from the wall and used as a credence. A 19th-century pointed doorway at the west end of the north wall opens into the vestry.

A plain 19th-century font and pulpit are present.

The memorials include an alabaster altar tomb against the north chancel wall with two effigies in 17th-century armour, one lying upon the slab and one fitted into the space beneath. Behind these are kneeling figures of two women in round-headed arched recesses on Ionic columns with full entablature above. The tomb is ornately panelled and decorated with four coats of arms, the highest central one belonging to the Washbourne family. An inscription records that John Washbourne had the monument built for himself, his two wives and his father, who lies beneath. The tomb was restored and repainted in 1863.

At the south-west end of the nave is another alabaster chest tomb, removed there from the chancel. It has two recumbent effigies of another John Washbourne (died 1615), his wife Alice and their three children who kneel against the chest. Above, on the west wall, is the Washbourne coat of arms. This monument was also restored and repainted in 1863.

Additional memorials include an early 19th-century one by J Stephens and a late 19th-century tablet on the south-nave wall, and a late 18th-century and mid-19th-century memorial on the north nave wall. The old clappers of the original bells are mounted on a board on the west side of the tower arch.

The glass includes a mid-19th-century east window, with 19th and early 20th-century glass in the chancel, north nave and westernmost south nave window.