Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

One of two parish churches standing within the precinct of Evesham Abbey, the other being All Saints. The church dates from the late 15th century with an early 16th-century south chapel. It was much restored and partially rebuilt in 1837 to the designs of Harvey Eginton, following a period of semi-dereliction. The building is constructed of stone rubble and ashlar walling with freestone dressings and slate roofs.

The plan consists of a clerestoried nave with four-bay north and south aisles, all approximately the same width, with the aisles nearly as long as the chancel. The arcades continue into the two-bay chancel, which projects beyond the east walls of the aisles as a shallow sanctuary bay. A south chapel opens off the south aisle, and there is a west tower with porch and a north-east doorway.

Exterior

The chancel projects forward from the east ends of the aisles by only the distance of a short bay and is decorated with richly-panelled diagonal buttresses with set-offs. The east window is huge, with glazing in the north and south returns of the projecting bay creating an almost bay-window effect. It has six lights, two king mullions and an arrangement of stone lozenges in place of a transom.

The north and south aisles are gabled at the east and west ends with three-light traceried Perpendicular east windows. The north aisle wall, rebuilt by Eginton, features three-light windows with late Perpendicular style tracery, a pierced parapet and low buttresses with set-offs. The parapet has pinnacles with cricketed finials. In the second bay from the west is an ogee-arched crocketted doorway that projects through the sill of the window.

The south chapel projects from the south side, built in ashlar with diagonal buttresses, a pierced parapet and a five-light transomed south window.

The west tower has flat-faced diagonal buttresses, a south-east projecting stair turret, a parapet with pinnacles and a short stone spire of 1837. It features a moulded Perpendicular style west doorway with carved spandrels, a very large four-light west window and two-light traceried belfry windows.

Interior

There is no chancel arch. The Eginton roof is a canted plastered vault divided into panels by moulded ribs. A tall, panelled tower arch supports an Eginton stone tower screen with a brattished cornice. The tower has a plaster vault with moulded ribs and bosses at the intersections.

The four-bay arcades have lozenge-shaped piers with moulded capitals to the west and east shafts, supporting Tudor arches. The wall above is panelled with pairs of cinquefoil-headed clerestory windows to each bay. The north arcade is an 1837 copy of the original south arcade. The aisles have flat plastered ceilings, and three-bay arcades connect the chancel to the chancel chapels.

The sanctuary contains an 1838 stone reredos with vaulted canopies above the Creed, Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments. There are 19th-century brass communion rails with flower ornament. Screens of around 1900 separate the choir from the aisles with delicate tracery carving, with matching reading desks at the west end of the choir featuring canopied seats. Choir stalls, probably early 20th century, have shouldered ends carved with blind tracery.

A polygonal timber pulpit of around 1906 is carved with figures of saints and a bishop under canopies. Nave benches have square ends and recessed panels.

A very worn late medieval font has an octagonal bowl carved with quatrefoils on an octagonal stem carved with blind tracery.

The south chapel has a fine fan-vaulted stone roof with a central pendant. The south wall of the chapel is carved with panelling, and the east wall retains two sections of decayed canopy work. In the centre of the chapel, on a floor of 19th-century encaustic tiles, stands a copy of the old font.

Stained Glass

The church contains good stained glass from various periods. The east window dates to 1862 and is by Thomas Willement. The north and south sanctuary windows are by Gibbs (1864 and around 1843 respectively). Three early 20th-century north aisle windows are by Geoffrey Webb. The east window of the south aisle is by O'Connor (1847), and the east window of the south chapel is by Hardman; the north aisle east window may also be by the same company. Windows of the 1930s are by Evans and Co of Smethwick and Paul Woodroffe of Stroud, while windows of the 1950s and 1960s are by A L Wilkinson and F W Skeat.

History

The church was one of two town centre churches within the precinct of Evesham Abbey. The reason for this duality has never been fully explained, although All Saints appears to have served as the parish church for the east part of the town, while St Lawrence's served the west. According to architectural historians, abbeys often had a nearby parish church to relieve them of parish duties.

The church has been redundant since 1978 and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.