Church Of St Botolph

Church of St Botolph

Parish church dating from the 13th century with later additions. The chancel was restored in 1889 and the nave in 1895-6.

The church is built of clunch with facings of uncoursed carstone and broken flint mixed with some erratics and brick, with stone dressings. The roof is of slate, with lead roofs to the aisles and porch. The building comprises a west tower, nave, north and south aisles, north and south transepts, south porch, and chancel.

The west tower is tall and built mainly of flint with a 15th-century added bellstage. It features diagonal stepped buttresses decorated with flint flushwork and a stone plinth. A full-height stair turret rises to the south-east. The west doorway has continuous mouldings, and above it sits a 3-light Perpendicular window with transomed lights and a string course below. Single cusped lights appear under square heads on the north, west and south faces of the stage above the window. The north face carries a clock face of 1887. The bell stage is articulated by a string course, with 3-light bell openings beneath 4-centred arches and panel tracery. An embattled parapet features flint flushwork panels and limestone shields, with ashlar panels on the south face. Crocketted pinnacles stand at each angle, and gargoyles ornament the string course below the parapet on the north, west and south sides.

Clerestoreys run along both north and south sides of the nave, featuring broken flint and brick mosaic. Each side has four 3-light windows with panel tracery beneath 4-centred arches and figure stops to hood moulds. The east gable of the nave is raised with brick quoins and carries a gable cross.

The south aisle contains three windows and one to the west matching the clerestorey pattern. A string course runs along it, and a diagonal buttress at the south-west angle transforms above the string course into a clasping polygonal buttress in ashlar, rising to a polygonal pointed cap.

The north aisle is constructed of varied stones and brick including considerable limestone. It has a diagonal buttress, no string course, and three windows plus one to the west as the clerestorey. A north doorway features a stoup to its left, with renewed mouldings to the head and figure stops.

The south porch has diagonal buttresses and polygonal jambs to a moulded 4-centred arch. A niche sits above, with a gable cross. The returns feature renewed openings of three cusped-headed lights. An Early English south doorway of three orders is preserved, each with slender side shafts and deeply moulded arches. The second order carries dogstooth moulding, and the hood mould displays figure stops.

The north and south transepts are built mainly of flint with some carstone and limestone. Their gables are raised in carstone with brick quoins, and carstone appears on the raised returns. Diagonal buttresses ornament both. A string course and gable cross mark the south transept. Openings of the 14th century feature three trefoil-headed lights—those to the south transept have a large cusped cinquefoil above the lower central light, while those to the north transept each sit beneath a trefoil.

The chancel has a green slate roof with an added gable cross, angle buttresses, and brick buttresses to the south. A 13th-century east window with fishscale tracery was inserted around 1889. South and north lights, renewed around 1889 in Decorated style, are all of two lights beneath quatrefoils or trefoils, some with figure stops. A priest's door to the south carries hollow chamfered moulding and wide stone dressings. To the north stands a gabled vestry of flint with gault brick dressings, featuring a 19th-century 2-light window with a datestone of 1631 below.

Interior

The interior contains Early English five-bay arcades to north and south, with the easternmost bays leading to the transepts. Slender quatre-foil piers support these arcades. Those to the south and the first bay of the north transept retain 13th-century shafts with recessed angles to create a detached appearance. Double chamfered arches spring from these piers. A similar chancel arch has jambs matching those of the south arcade piers. Arches from the transepts to the aisles spring from grotesque corbels in the aisle walls. Some springings from the west responds of the arcades relate to a former arch across the nave.

A tall 15th-century tower arch features continuous moulding and semi-circular jambs.

The south aisle carries a string course. Window rear arches feature slender shafts with figure or foliage stops. A moulded pointed segmental arch with foliage stops ornaments the rear arch of the doorway. A consecration cross is visible.

The chancel holds a screen with 15th-century panels painted with a floral diaper pattern and 19th-century muntins and loft. A painted and gilded wagon roof in seven cants dates from around 1889. Slender shafts adorn the east window mullions and rear arch. Moulded rear arches frame the chancel windows. Tall niches flank the east window, with piscina and sedilia all featuring crocketted ogee heads. These were discovered and restored around 1889. The north priest's door now serves the vestry, with double hollow chamfered continuous moulding.

Six misericord stalls stand to the rear of the screen. The wide fronts of the stalls and their left and right returns display Decorated tracery to panels and carved ends depicting the evangelists' symbols and mythical creatures. A 17th-century table with carved frieze is now extended.

The nave contains a queen post roof of around 1895 with wall posts and traceried spandrels, featuring carved leaf bosses. An octagonal font with facetted faces is supported by five Early English colonettes. Eight 15th-century poppy heads survive, six with carved bench ends including a notable figure of a man in stocks holding a pig over his shoulder.