Church Of St Lawrence

The Church of St. Lawrence is a medieval parish church located in South Cove, with a chancel that was restored in 1877. The structure includes a nave, chancel, west tower, and south porch, built from flint rubble with a plastered chancel and a thatched roof. The 15th-century square tower features three-stage diagonal buttresses on the west face and a crenellated parapet, both adorned with flushwork decoration. It has a two-light west window and two-light openings for the bell chamber, with the western opening rebuilt in brick.

The nave, dating from the 12th century, retains its original north and south doorways. The north doorway showcases a fine 15th-century door with crocketed ogee arches and tracery above, while the south doorway features a chevron-moulded arch with colonettes on the jambs. The north side has two-light 15th-century windows, and the south side has three two-light windows from the 14th to 15th centuries. The porch was rebuilt in 1880. The chancel, likely from the early 14th century, contains two-light windows with Y tracery—one on the north and two on the south—and a three-light east window, along with a simple priest's doorway on the south.

Inside, there is no chancel arch, and the nave boasts a fine 15th-century arch-braced roof with seven bays, featuring east-west bracing between the wall posts and along the ridge. A 13th-century angle piscina is located in the south chancel, with triple sedilia nearby. In the northwest corner of the nave is a tall niche for a banner stave locker. The church has a defaced 15th-century octagonal font bowl and an early 17th-century carved pulpit, which has been reduced from a three-decker. The nave contains a set of 24 15th-century benches, with ends carved in tracery and poppyheads. The south section of the dado from the 15th-century rood screen remains, featuring six cusped blank panels in two bays with traces of original colouring and gesso work. There is a 15th-century painting of St. Michael on the boarded door to the rood loft stairs, which, if original, is a rare survival. Additionally, there is a good original door leading to the tower stairs.