Church Of The Holy Cross

Church of the Holy Cross

This parish church dates from the late 12th century, with the chancel extended during the 13th and 14th centuries. The tower was built in the 15th century and raised in the 16th century. The building was restored in 1865–66 by Sir George Gilbert Scott.

The church is constructed of knapped flint with Totternhoe stone dressings, and the tower features red brick dressings. Some Roman tiles and puddingstones are incorporated into the fabric. The roofs are tiled. The plan is an unusually small cruciform arrangement with a short nave and transepts, a lengthened chancel, and a west tower. Aisles, a south vestry, and a south porch were added in 1865.

The chancel contains an east window that is a 19th-century restoration of a 14th-century design with two lights and cusped, trefoiled heads. On the south return is a small 14th- or 15th-century square-headed window with double chamfered surround and a 19th-century lancet. The north return has a 19th-century lancet. The nave is taller and wider than the transepts; the south transept is slightly larger with a plinth and a 19th-century two-light window with trefoiled pointed head. To the east of the south transept is a lean-to vestry with a pointed arched entrance to the south and a lancet to the east. To the west of the south transept is a separately roofed 19th-century aisle with a two-light plate traceried window to the west. To the south is a gabled porch with timber on a flint and stone base and cusped braces to the pointed entrance, with a lancet to the east.

The north transept has a plinth and a 15th-century north window with two square-headed cinquefoiled lights and double hollow chamfered surround. To the east is a square-headed 19th-century double lancet. A stack at the northeast angle was added in 1931, rising from a two-stage diagonal buttress. The north aisle has a two-light plate traceried window to the west.

The two-stage west tower has a double plinth. The west window is of 13th-century form, possibly moved from the nave west wall in the 15th century, with a pointed head, double lancets, a circular light at the head, and double chamfered surround. A small 15th-century window is to the south. A string course divides the 16th-century bell stage, which has brick quoins. To the west are paired four-centred arched openings with chamfered brick and moulded brick outer surrounds, square heads, and drip moulds. To the north is a tall cusped opening in a stone surround with stone drip mould. To the south is a single opening with brick surround and drip mould. A diagonally set course sits below the eaves. Brick gables to north and south support a transverse saddleback roof.

Internally, the nave features late 12th-century pointed arches opening to the chancel and transepts, with plain square order and chamfered strings at the imposts. A 15th-century double chamfered pointed tower arch spans the entrance. Nineteenth-century arches follow the 12th-century model from the nave to the aisles and from the transepts to the aisles. The north transept has segmental rear arches to window embrasures, while the south transept has a 15th-century rear arch to its south window.

The chancel south wall contains a 13th-century double piscina with roll-moulded pointed arches and a central shaft with moulded cap; a roll-moulded string rises vertically to the right, and the left half is cut to form a sedile. To the east is a smaller 15th-century piscina with a trefoiled head, Tudor flower, and brattished ornament. To the west of the chancel south wall is a blocked doorway with a segmental head. The chancel north wall has a recess with a cusped head and an aumbry.

The chancel roof dates from the 14th or 15th century and comprises two bays with moulded arched braces, struts to collars, clasped purlins, curved wind-braces, and brattishing below ashlar pieces. Moulded tie and collar beams exist to the centre and west trusses. The east truss was cut in 1865 over the window to form a braced hammer beam. The nave roof has two bays with curved braces to tie beams, all hollow moulded. The south transept has queen posts with braces to purlins, and the north transept has a braced tie beam.

The church contains a good early 17th-century hexagonal pulpit with linenfold panels separated by double balusters, a backboard with foliate carving, scrolled braces supporting a square tester with carved soffit and moulded cornice. The north transept displays a bowl of a 12th-century font and a 13th- or 14th-century stone tomb slab on the east wall carved with a cross. A 19th-century font in the south aisle is based on a 12th-century model, with a circular stem, four angle shafts from a square base, and a shallow square bowl with blank arcading.

Fragmentary wall paintings appear on the south transept east wall, depicting a 15th-century Annunciation with Shepherds and Angel and Ascension; these were restored in 1928 by E.W. Tristram. A monument to W. Kingsley (died 1611) and his wife stands on the chancel south wall, featuring kneeling figures with children in an alabaster aedicule with flanking obelisks, arms in a cartouche above, and an epitaph below (falsely dated 1502). A 18th-century floor slab to the Day family lies in the nave. The south transept south wall holds a monument to the Williams family, early 18th century, an aedicular marble slab with arms above and cherubim below.

The east window and north transept east window are by Clayton and Bell, dating from 1865. Late medieval benches were used as the model for Scott's reseating.