Church Of St Thomas Of Canterbury

Parish church of St Thomas of Canterbury, built in 1844 by Thomas Smith. The building is constructed of knapped and some squared flint with cemented brick dressings and a machine tiled roof, designed in the Neo-Norman style.

The church comprises a 4-bay nave, broad transepts, a short narrow chancel, and a vestry set in the angles between the transepts and chancel. A tower rises from the angle of the nave and north transept.

The west front features a round-arched entrance with cushion and scallop-capped shafted jambs, with 2 orders of zigzag mouldings to the arch head and cement quoining. A plinth runs the full width, with string courses at impost level and above the arch. An upper 2-light window with round heads and cushion and scallop-capped shafts has zigzag-moulded heads and soffits; a round light sits above, all beneath a zigzag-moulded round arch with a mask-stopped hood mould. A thick projecting rendered band runs to the gable, returned at the ends as clasping buttresses, with shafts at the upper level inside the rendered band. Block corbelling supports a coped parapet with a ridge cross and mask-stopped kneelers.

The south side of the nave displays 3 bays of round-headed windows with double shafted jambs and double zigzag-moulded heads and soffits, set above a plinth with a rendered course at sill level. Rendered pilaster strips between bays support a block corbelled cornice band. The 4th bay contains a round-headed entrance with double shafts and zigzag moulding. The north side of the nave is identical, with a tower projection on the 4th bay.

The tower comprises three stages. The square lower stage has a blocked west entrance and an engaged shaft at the angle, with a tall round-headed window to the north in a plain double reveal. A block corbel table forms a cornice band below the octagonal upper stages. The second stage has small round-headed lights with double reveals. The open belfry contains tall round-headed openings with shafted jambs and zigzag-moulded heads beneath a continuous hood mould, topped by a mask corbel table supporting a short octagonal spire with a cross finial.

The transepts have continuous roofing with a taller ridge and eaves emphasizing the north-south axis. The north transept features a lower tripartite window with round-headed lights, the centre light taller, all with shafted jambs, zigzag-moulded heads, and a mask-stopped hood mould over a stud-patterned band. A block corbel table sits below an upper 2-light window with a central round light, all beneath a round arch. Outer pilaster strips and a gable band, as at the west end, frame the composition, with a ridge cross at the apex. The south transept is similar, with a blind window in a triple reveal to the west.

The chancel east end has a lower tripartite window with taller central light, shafted jambs, zigzag-moulded heads, and a stud-patterned band beneath a mask-stopped hood mould. An upper round window with 8 lights is divided by radiating cushion and scallop-capped colonnettes within an octafoil surround, surrounded by a zigzag-moulded outer ring. Pilaster strips and a gable band match those at the west end, with a continuous block corbel table below a cornice band. Low canted outshuts occupy the angles of the transepts and chancel, with round-headed entrances to the south and windows to the north.

Interior windows are articulated with cushion and scallop-capped shafts in the jambs and zigzag-moulded round heads and soffits, echoing the external treatment. Broad round crossing arches span the interior; the nave arch has double zigzag moulding and cushion-capped responds, with cushion caps to the north and scallop caps to the south. The chancel arch has a single order with slender colonnettes in the rebates of the responds. A king post roof runs throughout, with upper tie beams on curved braces and pseudo-hammer beams carved with angels bearing arms, all resting on short columnar corbels.

Furnishings include a Neo-Norman octagonal font with columns surrounding the stem and carved saints in niches with flanking engaged colonnettes, with a carved wood font cover dated 1858. Neo-Norman arcaded communion rails have cushion caps. The altar table features scallop-capped shafts, zigzag mouldings, and block corbel tables. A late 19th-century crucifixion occupies the east window.