Church Of St Botolph

Church of St Botolph, Burgh

A church of the 14th and 15th centuries, built of flint rubble with ashlar dressings and a plain tile roof. It comprises a nave and chancel with a south-western porch-tower.

The porch-tower has ashlar quoins on its south face. At ground level is a central doorway with a double-wave mould to the ashlar surround and hood mould, above which are brick voussoirs. The first stage has a quatrefoil opening with a semi-circular hood mould. The belfry stage features a two-light opening with chamfered surround, trefoil-headed ogee lights and quatrefoil and mouchette details to the apex. A string course runs below the parapet with a central gargoyle. The parapet has flushwork tracery panels with cinquefoil heads, paired to the raised battlements. The eastern face is similar but lacks a ground-floor doorway. The west face is similar but without the quatrefoil opening. The north face abuts the church at its lower section but has a comparable belfry opening, with some brick infill to the parapet flushwork.

The nave's south face shows the porch-tower to the left, with a two-light Perpendicular window to its right featuring cinquefoil heads and tracery above. A buttress at the far right has flushwork to its outer face, dying back into the wall via three offsets. The west face was largely rebuilt in the 19th century and has diagonal buttresses dying back into the corners via two offsets, with a central three-light Perpendicular window whose central ogee light and upper tracery were largely replaced in the 19th century, possibly following an earlier pattern. The north face has a projecting 19th-century buttress with knapped flint to its outer face at the right. A doorway at right of centre has a hollow-chamfered and wave-moulded surround with a hollow-chamfered hood mould. To the left is a two-light Perpendicular window with cinquefoil heads. A buttress stands at the far left.

The chancel's south face has a buttress to the right of centre with three offsets. Immediately to its left is a priest's door with ogee and hollow chamfers, hood mould and label stops. To the left is a two-light Perpendicular window with cinquefoil heads. To the right of the buttress is a two-light late-Decorated window with ogee heads with cusps and a quatrefoil to the apex. The eastern face has diagonal buttresses dying back into the corners via two offsets, ashlar quoins and coping, with Roman bricks and tiling visible in the wall fabric. A central 19th-century window of three Perpendicular lights with cinquefoil heads has a hood mould and label stops. The northern face has a projecting 19th-century vestry with a lean-to roof to the left and a four-centred doorway at the far left.

Interior

The porch has a door arch with doubled plain chamfers to its rebates and hollow-chamfering and double-ogee mouldings to the arch. The door is a 14th-century plank door with nailhead decoration and a central large crescent-shaped door handle with a highly domed plate, dated by Munro Cautley to the 13th century.

The nave roof comprises five bays. Rectangular wall posts spring from wooden angel corbels of 17th-century date with spread wings and praying hands. Attached to the inward faces of the wall posts are semi-octagonal colonettes with moulded capitals, from which spring extended arched braces that rise to connect with pendant posts at the level of the moulded purlins. These posts also terminate in angels holding shields, positioned along the length of the church adjacent to the west wall and the chancel arch. Further arched braces rise from these to cambered collar beams with central suspended bosses. A richly decorated cornice displays several layers of roll and cavetto mouldings, fretwork panels with open circles, attenuated trefoils and brattishing.

An octagonal 17th-century pulpit has arched panels to its centre with decorated panels above and below, and a projecting reading desk above a dentiled cornice supported on scroll-brackets. The chancel arch is chamfered with semi-octagonal piers to its inner arch, with mutilated bases and capitals. The font is octagonal with a 19th-century stem and blind traceried panels. The octagonal bowl, with recut flowers to the underside, displays the symbols of the evangelists and angels bearing crowns in a style similar to the wooden angel bosses in the roof. The heads appear to have been recut in the 17th century.

In the north wall is a blocked window with a mural painting by Anna Zinkeisen dated to around 1967, in memory of her husband Colonel Guy Heseltine, depicting Birds of the Bible. In the south wall is a recess with a square chamfered surround, formerly containing a door. Behind it is a round-arched recess with a quatrefoil piscina bowl at the bottom, possibly carved at a later date. A recess in the south wall contains a square chamfered surround, formerly housing a door, with a round-arched recess behind containing a quatrefoil piscina bowl at the bottom, possibly of later carving.

The chancel roof comprises three bays, similar in character to the nave roof but on a smaller scale. The angels here have separated feathers to their wings and appear to date to the late 15th or early 16th century. A chest with lattice ironwork to lid and sides, decorated with much nailhead work and featuring a complicated locking mechanism with three tongues, cross bar and padlock ring, is probably of 16th-century date. A decorated piscina with a cinquefoil head has a chamfered surround with run-out stops to the bottom.