Church Of St Paul

Church of St Paul

This is a substantial parish church built between 1863 and 1865 by the architect Henry Woodyer, funded by W.J. Loyd of Langleybury House. The building is constructed from squared knapped flint with Bath stone dressings and machine tiled roofs, executed in a tall, impressive Gothic Revival style.

The church comprises a nave with a north aisle, south porch, west tower with a prominent spire, a narrower and lower chancel, a south chapel, a north organ bay, and a vestry.

The west tower is arranged in three stages. The west entrance features strap-hinged doors set within a heavily moulded pointed arch. A double plinth runs below the windows, which have stone courses beneath them. The north and south returns are lit by paired lancets. A string course divides the second stage, which has a geometrical tracery window to the west and trefoil-headed lancets with clocks to the north and south. Three-stage diagonal buttresses rise on the west face. On the south side stands a semi-octagonal stair turret with a pointed arched entrance, slit windows, and quoins. The upper bell stage contains two pointed arched louvred openings on each side with central shafts and cusped heads, separated by intermediate and corner ashlar piers. The stage is corbelled to support the tall broached spire, which is shingled.

The south porch at the west end of the nave has a heavily moulded pointed entrance arch with double-shafted jambs and a mask-stopped hood mould. Diagonal buttresses and kneelers support the steeply pitched coped gable parapet, which terminates in an apex cross and carries an initial relief panel. The returns feature small triple lancets, a plinth, and stone bands. Within the porch are benches, a dedication stone, and an arch-braced roof; the inner doors are strap-hinged and set in a heavily moulded pointed arch with shafted jambs.

The nave's south side has pointed arched windows with curvilinear tracery and buttresses. A stone band runs at the close eaves of the steeply pitched roof, which terminates eastward in a coped parapet with a ridge cross.

The north aisle comprises six bays and is lit by an entrance with a trefoiled head and stiff-leaf spandrels. Four bays contain double hollow-chamfered mullioned windows of four lights with square heads and trefoiled heads to each light. The aisle is covered by a lean-to roof set just below the nave eaves. The west end of the aisle contains a cusped lancet.

The chancel's east gable is dominated by a large pointed arched five-light window with curvilinear tracery. Short angle buttresses and kneelers support a coped gable parapet with a ridge cross. The south return has a similar two-light window and a ball-flower frieze set within a moulded stone band at the eaves.

The south chapel has a lower, separate steeply pitched roof. Its south face displays five trefoiled lancets in triple roll-moulded surrounds separated by recessed shafts, all in ashlar with diagonal buttresses below. Steps rise to an entrance at the west gable end, which features an ashlar panel with shafts and empty shields beneath a lancet window. The east gable end contains a cellar entrance with a two-light window featuring curvilinear tracery.

To the north of the chancel, an organ bay is attached to the east end of the north aisle, lit by four lancets and featuring a cellar entrance, corbelling to a hipped roof. A lean-to vestry stands further east, equipped with an entrance and four quatrefoil lights, with a three-light square-headed window to the east.

The interior features a six-bay nave arcade with pointed arches borne on four half-column cluster piers with moulded caps and bases. Carved angels spring from the arch imposts. The pointed chancel arch is richly carved with twelve angels to each side and full-length musician angels on the caps to the respond shafts, with stiff-leaf ornament throughout; all carving was executed by Thomas Earp. A pointed tower arch rises on half-column responds. A double arcade connects the chancel to the south chapel, featuring clustered shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and cusped arches, with a similar arch opening to the organ bay. The east window has a cusped inner archivolt with shafted jambs, while the south chapel's south window has shaft mullions.

The nave roof is arch-braced with cusped windbraces. The chancel roof is similarly cusped and braced, with a brattished cornice. The tower is fitted with a coffered and painted ceiling.

Fittings include a Cornish serpentine font in the tower with a tall timber Gothic cover; a semi-octagonal pulpit with a shafted base and traceried decoration with marble inlay; a low stone screen with quatrefoil marble inlay; and a traceried reredos with initials, all by Henry Woodyer. The original choir stalls feature poppyhead finials and retain their original seating. In the south chapel are monuments to W.J. Loyd (died 1885), with a marble portrait medallion flanked by two putti, and to his wife (died 1893), represented by a lifesize seated angel with a raised arm on a pedestal. The chancel and tower contain paintings by Mrs. Loyd, and mosaics decorate the east wall.