Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

A parish church of mixed dates, primarily comprising a 13th-century nave and chancel that were substantially restored in the 19th century, together with a 15th or 16th-century west tower (restored in the 18th and 19th centuries) and a 14th-century south porch (also restored in the 19th century). The 19th-century additions include north and south transepts, a south vestry, and a north organ chamber.

The exterior walls are cement-rendered rubble with stone door and window dressings. The west tower has stone quoins to its lower stages, with the upper stages rebuilt in red brick and decorated with a stone gargoyle band to the parapet. Red plain tiled roofs cover the building throughout.

The chancel features a 19th-century east window of three trefoiled lights with vertical tracery over a two-centred head and label, alongside a chamfered two-light lancet to the south wall. The gabled south vestry has a two-light window under a square head on its north wall and a chamfered two-centred doorway on the south, with three graduated lancet windows above. The gabled south transept has angle buttresses and a south window matching the chancel's east window. A stone plaque below the window reads "This Church enlarged 1840 I.H. Randolph, Vicar." The north transept is similar but features two-light windows under two-centred heads and labels. The nave's south wall contains western two-light lancet windows, with similar windows to those of the north wall. The gabled south porch has a chamfered two-centred doorway with double vertically boarded doors and a stone plaque reading "James Hardy. Benj. Carrington 1840". The porch's return walls each have two trefoiled lights with pointed quatrefoil over, chamfered two-centred heads, with the eastern window blocked. The 19th-century north organ chamber has a gabled east wall with trefoiled two-light windows under a square head and a roundel to the apex, plus a chamfered segmental-headed window to the north wall.

The west tower comprises three stages. The lower stages, probably early 16th-century with extensive repairs, are of plastered rubble with limestone quoins and western angle buttresses. The upper stage, from the 18th and 19th centuries, is of red brick with a parapet and brick band decorated with gargoyles. Each face of the upper stage features a chamfered two-centred sounding louvre. The second-stage window on the west face is much worn but retains cinquefoil tracery; the west window has two cinquefoiled lights in a three-centred head with moulded label. The west doorway has double chamfered jambs, a two-centred arch, and moulded label, with a nailed plank and muntin door. A weathervane in the form of a gridiron crowns the tower.

Interior

The south porch has a boarded five-cant roof. The south door features a moulded two-centred arch with a 19th-century moulded and panelled door.

The chancel has a moulded seven-cant roof with moulded wall plates and purlins, and a later carved wall plate over the organ. Prayer and Exodus boards are positioned adjacent to the east window. Two 17th-century carved chairs remain. A piscina with possibly 13th-century origins stands on the south wall, featuring a chamfered two-centred arch and sexfoil drain. The north wall contains double piscinae with double two-centred arches moulded and enriched with dog-tooth ornament and moulded labels with stops, a central shaft with moulded capitals and bases (restored, possibly 13th-century). A lancet window sits to the west of the north wall. A blocked 13th-century west window is visible in the south wall. The chancel arch, of unknown date, comprises two chamfered orders, the outer continuous and the inner resting on attached shafts with moulded capitals.

The wooden altar rails appear to be composed of three types of 18th-century balusters, possibly assembled from elsewhere. A significant feature is the floor slabs with brasses and indents relating to the 16th and 17th-century Grimston family and their wives (the family later adopted the name Harbottle Grimston). Of 14 identified brasses, 13 were identified and relaid in 1958 when the chancel was restored by the fifth Earl of Verulam, a descendant of the family. Notable brasses include that of Joane (Harbottell), wife of Thomas Rysbye (1598), showing a woman in an embroidered stomacher, ruff and cap with shield of arms; John Harbottle (1577) with inscription and shield of arms; Jakys Reynford (1520) with inscription; and Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Grimstone (1604), inscription only.

Dr L.G. Hayne became vicar in 1871 and was a musician, composer and collector of antique carvings with a particular passion for organs. He installed the organ in 1875, simultaneously installing some pipes under the floor. He may also have installed the double piscinae, altar rails, and pulpit. A 16th-century funeral helm with visor, renewed crest and tabard hangs on the south wall.

The 19th-century north vestry has a boarded roof and vertically boarded walls. The nave, north and south transept roofs each contain two tie beams, queen posts and central arched braces to collars, with plaster above the collars. The pulpit is semi-hexagonal with panelled sides from the 18th century, incorporating 16th and 17th-century attached carvings and panels.

The south transept contains wall memorials to Rev. Charles and Rev. Henery Unfreville (1774 and 1766), and to Lewis Agassiz (1866). A memorial to Elizabeth Agassiz, wife of Lewis, by Chantrey (undated), shows an alabaster kneeling figure of a mourning female. The north transept holds a wall memorial to Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning DSC, RN, of Jaques Hall, bearing an Admiralty citation detailing his wounding in a fight with German seaplanes in June 1916 and his remarkable achievement in landing an aircraft on the deck of a Man-of-War whilst underway, accomplishing two successful landings before being killed on the third run on 7 August 1917. This feat, never previously attempted, proved the aeroplane indispensable to the fleet. A small brass on the east wall depicts the biplane landing on the deck of HMS Furious. Panelled walls surround the pews. Two 20th-century stained glass windows in the north wall of the nave are by Rosemary Rutherford and were given by Miss M.L. Dunning. The Royal Arms of George III in iron hang over the south doorway. A memorial removed in 1972 from St Johns Church, Horsley Cross, is also present.

The west tower arch is two-centred with two chamfered orders, the outer continuous and the inner resting on attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The font is a 12th or 13th-century octagonal bowl with two pointed panels to each face and a centre stem with plain circular shafts at each angle, set upon a 20th-century octagonal base. A 20th-century bronze of Christ with the Madonna and two cherubs is displayed. A 14th-century bell bears the inscription "I am the Koc of this floc wit Gloria Tibi Domini," notable for its partly English inscription, as documented in C. Deedes and H.B. Walters' Church Bells of Essex (1909).