Church Of Holy Cross

The Church of Holy Cross is a parish church located on Church Lane in Caston. It dates back to around 1300, with significant additions made in the mid-14th century and early 15th century. The church underwent restoration between 1852 and 1854. It is constructed of flint with ashlar quoins and features thatched roofs.

The church includes a west tower, nave, and chancel. The 14th-century tower has three stages and is supported by diagonal buttresses. It features a moulded ogee west door with a hood mould and an integral porch. Above the door is a three-light west window with reticulation units, and a clock face is situated above it. The third stage of the tower has two-light cusped belfry windows and a plain parapet.

The south side of the nave has a central flat buttress and three early 15th-century three-light panel traceried windows. There are restored two-light windows to the west and east, located beside diagonal buttresses, with the eastern one situated below the remains of a blocked rectangular rood loft window. The nave has a low coped parapet on kneelers.

The chancel features two two-light trefoiled Y windows flanking an arched Priest's door, with diagonal buttresses on the east side. The east window is a three-light intersecting ogee type from the mid-14th century, supported by trefoil cusps and lozenges below an encircled cinquefoil vesica. The north side of the chancel contains one two-light Perpendicular window and a trefoil lancet. There is an angle buttress to the nave and stairs leading to the rood loft, along with two three-light Perpendicular windows under four-centred arches and a central buttress.

A brick two-storey north porch, now serving as a vestry, features an arched and moulded entrance and diagonal buttresses, with square-headed one-light windows on each floor.

Inside, the church has a double wave moulded tower arch with polygonal capitals, partially blocked with timber to create a ringing gallery. Benches were installed in 1839. There is a four-centred tomb recess in the north wall and a low doorway leading to the parvis on the west side. The church boasts a fine scissor-braced roof from the early 14th century, with collars covered in early 15th-century chestnut panelling, decorated with transverse and longitudinal ribs and foliate bosses, along with remains of original paint and a battlemented wall plate.

The early 17th-century pulpit is panelled with a deep top rail featuring lunette carving. The base of the screen and two misericord stalls abut the screen. An early 17th-century brass chandelier, with ball and baluster turnings, has two tiers of nine branches rising from a central shaft. The chancel includes a trefoil piscina.