Parish Church Of St Lawrence

The parish church of St Lawrence is an Early 16th-century building, located in Willington, originally constructed by Sir John Gostwick, a servant of Cardinal Wolsey and later Treasurer of the First Fruits and Tenths under Henry VIII. It was restored in 1876-7 by Clutton. The church is built of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and comprises a chancel, a north chapel, a nave, a north aisle, a south porch, and a west tower.

The chancel's east wall contains a large window of five cinquefoiled lights under a two-centered head. Shafts on either side suggest a former plan to vault the chancel in stone. The south wall features two three-light windows under four-centered heads with embattled transoms, flanking a four-centered arched priest's door. A two-centered chancel arch leads to the nave. A two-bay north arcade features four-centered arches.

The north chapel contains an east window of three lights under a two-centered head and two north windows of three ogee lights. A pointed arch connects the chapel to the north aisle. The nave has a four-centered south doorway, flanked by transomed four-light windows; the lower portions having pointed cinquefoiled heads, and the upper having four-centered uncusped heads, and a three-bay north arcade with two-centered heads. A rood staircase is located to the northeast. The clerestory displays three two-light uncusped windows with four-centered heads. The north aisle has a north doorway with a pointed head, flanked by windows of three uncusped lights under four-centered heads.

The south porch has a three-light window on each side under a square head. The outer doorway features a depressed arch decorated with diamond panels, and a small niche above the doorway has a canopy with carved vaulting ribs. The west tower has three stages with diagonal buttresses; the top stage has two-light transomed windows under pointed arches and square labels on each face. A blocked west door has a 19th-century three-light window above, and the south elevation features a small pointed arched doorway, four small pointed arched lights to the staircase, and a single pointed arched light to the middle stage. The tower is topped with embattled parapets.

Inside, the church retains original low-pitched roofs, with carved corbels in the chancel and chapel, and foliated bosses and embattled wall plates in the aisle and nave. Some 16th-century tracery remains on the bench ends. The north chapel contains an alabaster and black marble tomb to Sir William Gostwick, who died in 1615, with a painted and gilt effigy on a mattress beneath a wooden canopy painted to resemble marble. There is also a wall monument to Sir Edward Gostwick and his wife Anne, dated 1635, displaying two kneeling figures under round-headed arches, and figures of their sons and daughters below. Within the east bay of the chancel arcade is a chest tomb to Sir John Gostwick, who died in 1545, with a panel recording the building of the chapel in 1541. Some medieval floor tiles are retained in the chapel.