Church Of St Faith

Church of St Faith

Parish church. 12th century on an older site, partly rebuilt in the 13th century, 1330-40 and late 15th century; restored 1879-80 by Richard Norman Shaw for Robert Martin. Limestone rubble, partly ashlar-faced with ashlar dressings; stone tiled roof in diminishing courses and gable-end parapets with cross finials.

The church comprises a four-bay aisled nave with former clerestory, south porch and opposing north doorway, central tower and two-bay chancel.

Nave. The roof was raised and the aisles widened in the 14th century, enclosing the clerestory windows with the new aisle roofs. There are angled buttresses with offsets at each end and buttresses with offsets at bay divisions of the north elevation. The west end has 19th-century exterior stonework, with three large stepped lancets with a sill string and a small louvred lancet in the gable apex. At the west end of each aisle is a two-light 19th-century window. The north elevation has two three-light 14th-century windows flanking the north doorway, which is pointed and hollow chamfered. At the east end is a similar three-light window and a doorway with a four-centred head to the rood loft stair. The two windows in the south elevation and that at the east end of the south aisle are also three-light but partly restored. The south porch is 19th century, gabled with diagonal buttresses, a pointed archway, a lancet in each side elevation and stone benches within. The 12th-century south doorway has been reset in the 14th-century wall and consists of three shafted orders: the outer orders have a roll moulding with scalloped and voluted capitals of varying detail, while the inner order has colonnettes of simple detail.

Tower. The central tower was rebuilt in the late 15th century in three stages with strings and a chamfered plinth. It has diagonal corner buttresses with offsets; the south-west one bears a curious carved reptile, and in the north-west buttress is the door to the tower stairs. The north and south elevations of the lower stage have three-light windows and small square-headed lights beneath the string. This string is carved with Tudor flowers at intervals. In the south elevation is a narrow pointed doorway with moulded jambs. The second stage has a square-headed light in its west elevation. The belfry stage has large square-headed bell chamber openings of four lights filled with elaborate pierced stone tracery of probable 17th-century date. There are four gargoyles at the corners of the parapet string; the parapet is embattled and has crocketted corner pinnacles.

Chancel. 13th century, altered in the 15th century, with moulded plinth and sill string. There are pilaster buttresses at the east end and also at the centre of the side elevations, and at each end of the side elevations are large 19th-century buttresses with offsets. The east window is 15th century, eight lights with a four-centred head. Beneath the sill string is an illegible memorial, and in the gable apex are two rectangular lights. The side elevations have a continuous hoodmould and string course just below eaves level, with two 13th-century lancets, each richly moulded with nook shafts with foliated capitals and moulded bases. There is a dovecote in the roof, accessed by a small door beneath the eaves in the north elevation.

Interior. The four-bay nave has round-headed arcades of two orders with circular columns. The north arcade has square scalloped capitals and a continuous simple hoodmould with reset head stops, while the south arcade has similar capitals but with a deep vertical face, horizontal flutes and an ornate continuous hoodmould. Above each column and above the east respond are small clerestory windows; the north-east one is partly obscured by the angle wall of the later rood stair turret. The tower arches are of two orders in 15th-century style, and spanning the lower stage is a 19th-century quadripartite vault. The chancel has a 13th-century quadripartite vault with carved bosses springing from attached vaulting shafts; the intermediate shafts are in clusters of three, all with foliated capitals and moulded bases. The sill strings are carried up vertically around the arches of the vault to form the wall ribs. The nave has a 19th-century barrel roof.

The mullions of the east window continue below the sill to form a blind arcade with quatrefoil tracery, and the chancel windows also have nook shafts similar to those on the exterior. The west window has detached chamfered shafts between the lights with a filleted roll on each face, repeated on the jambs.

The font has a 12th-century bowl carved with panels representing a priest, bishop, a Latin cross, a dove and a scrolled foliated motif; the octagonal base is 14th century with ballflower decoration. The pulpit incorporates reused ornate woodwork from the 15th-century rood screen, and the nave pews have 15th-century traceried panels. There is a medieval coffin lid in the north aisle and two medieval tiles set in a south chancel window sill.

Memorials. In the nave are two memorials to the Martin family: one is late 18th century by W Stephens, the other is early 19th century. In the north aisle are two early 19th-century memorials, one to the Agge family surmounted by a grieving woman by Cooke of London. There is also an 18th-century ledger slab to the Agge family, and in the south aisle are three 18th-century ledger slabs to the Darke family, one with reused ornate entablature and swan-neck pediment.

A substantial medieval church with a particularly interesting and well-detailed Early English chancel.