Church Of St Ippolyts (Church Of England)

Church of St Ippolyts

Parish church of traditional foundation date 1087, with surviving fabric of nave and chancel that underwent major development over the medieval period. The aisles were added and the chancel remodelled in the early 14th century, while a 14th-century west tower was built. The 15th century saw the addition of north and south porches and widening of the chancel arch. A cross-like spire base is dated 1636.

The church underwent considerable repairs in 1839. A new east window was inserted in the chancel in 1874–5. Significant restoration followed in 1877–8, carried out by Joseph Clarke, Diocesan Architect, with builder Mr Gregory of Clapham Junction. This involved carefully rebuilding three walls from their foundations while re-incorporating older features, constructing a new roof over nave and aisles, and building an organ chamber and north vestry. The old tower was releaded in 1880, and the organ was rebuilt in 1891. A choir vestry was added north of the earlier vestry in 1913–14. New altar rails were installed in 1939, and the spire was releaded in 1940.

The building is constructed of flint rubble faced in coursed pebbles with stone dressings. Tufa dressings of 11th-century date appear at the junction of the nave and narrower chancel on the south side and around a blocked south window and the southeast angle of the nave. Later work employs clunch or limestone. The south porch is timber-framed with 17th-century red brick infill to the sides. The roofs are of steep old red tile, with lead covering the north aisle.

The small church sits on the brow of a hill with ground sloping steeply away to the north. The plan comprises a square-ended chancel, nave, aisles, north and south porches, a west tower, and two vestries on the north of the chancel.

The chancel has an old scissor-rafter roof divided into two bays by a moulded tie beam, with a boarded waggon roof over the east part. The east window is a pointed three-light with a fan arrangement of mouchettes in the head, said to be a copy of a window formerly in Minsden chapel in Preston parish, drawn by Buckler. One north and two south windows are of 14th-century date with two lights and tracery in pointed segmental arched heads. The west window on the south has a lower sill and contains stained glass of 1851. A double aumbry appears in the north wall by the altar. The south wall has a 13th-century twin-arched combined piscina and credence with a shaft between. A brass to Alice, wife of Ryce Hughes (died 1594), depicts a kneeling man, wife, children and inscription all on one plate.

The nave has a 19th-century three-bay open timber roof with two purlins. The arched-braced collar to each truss has a second cross-beam above the tie beam joined by vertical balusters. The north and south walls are pierced by wide early 14th-century arches, two well-separated on each side, with chamfered outer order under a moulded hoodmould with small headstops and a half-octagonal inner order carried on large broad-faced corbel-heads with inscribed abaci (one 19th-century replacement on the south side). High in the angle of the northeast corner of the nave is a narrow four-centred head to an upper doorway for the former rood loft. Tufa dressings mark the original round-headed late 11th-century window in the wall above the south arcade. The wider north aisle has largely renewed windows; its eastern window contains stained glass by Shrigley & Hunt dating around 1929. A 14th-century piscina on the south side sits in the back of a pier beside the pulpit, with an ogee cusped head and trefoil sinking. A brass to Robert Poydres and Alice his wife (died 1401) with incomplete inscription is also present. An early 14th-century north doorway opens from this aisle.

The south aisle contains a narrow two-light 14th-century east window with tracery in a pointed head and the remains of a canopied niche on the inner jamb. A square-headed two-light south window of some age sits east of the porch. A moulded clunch south door dates to the early 14th century, and a 19th-century two-light west window is later. A 14th-century trefoil-headed piscina sits near the east end of the aisle, with nearby a recess containing the 14th-century recumbent effigy of a priest. A 14th-century octagonal stone font on a stem with engaged shafts stands in this aisle. Set in the north wall of the south aisle is a 13th-century arch stone with moulding, label and dog-tooth ornament. Below it is a stone inscribed with several crosses with enlarged terminals, some in lozenge-shaped surrounds.

A wooden arcaded screen with a 15th-century central bay was set up in the chancel during the 19th-century restoration and moved to the tower arch around 1939.

The tall square west tower has angle buttresses at its west angles, a string course below a crenelated parapet, and a low pyramidal red tile roof topped by a lead-covered preaching cross in place of a spire. The cross sits on a classical panelled pedestal supporting a tapering octagonal cross shaft with moulded cap and base, topped by a cross and vane. The east face of the pedestal bears the date 1636. A stair turret is buried in the southwest corner. Each face has a two-light pointed bell opening at the second level, lit by small slit windows. A clock was installed in 1887 and repaired in 1924. The three-light west window is of 14th-century date with tracery in the head and renewed mullions. The tower arch is plain and chamfered.

The elaborate 15th-century north porch is of clunch, renewed externally, with a pointed entrance arch with square head and traceried spandrels. Flanking buttresses, trefoil-headed niches flanking the entrance, and a canopied niche over the entrance complete the composition.

The 15th-century south porch is timber-framed with sides infilled by 17th-century red brick, but retains its original elaborate south front with moulded bargeboards to the roof verge. A cambered moulded tie-beam spans the central opening, which has an arched four-centred entrance with cusped spandrels flanked by narrow two-light trefoil-headed side-lights. Later wooden gates have been added. A king-post and crosspieces to the principal rafters form a cross-shaped gable infill above the tie-beam. A pierced circular stone chimney serves the vestry.