Church Of St Lawrence

TL 77 NW 6/15

ERISWELL Church of St. Lawrence

(Formerly listed as Church of St. Peter)

7.5.54

II* Church. Medieval, restored 1874. Nave, chance, south chapel, south aisle, west tower, north porch. Flint rubble with areas of early rendering intact. Freestone dressings. Slated roof with parapet gables. Tower roof flat behind crenellated parapets. Originally a 2-cell church of nave and chancel; these became the south aisle and chapel respectively in early C14, and of this date are present nave, chancel, tower and porch. Mid or late C13 features include: lancets in south chapel wall, large 2-light east chapel window, 2- and 3- light south windows with intersecting tracery, moulded south doorway (beside it is a sepulchral recess containing a coffin slab with floriated cross). Beneath the kneeler of the west parapet gable is a carved mask. The early C14 work is rich in detail: - 2-stage tower with massive buttressing, 2-light belfry openings and mask - carved gargoyles; the slit-windows to the ringing chamber and stair turret are all moulded. West doorway, with, above it, a small 2-light window and above that an image niche. Lighting the Lady Altar in the south aisle is a low square window with tracery, and in its cill is a piscina and sedile; nearby is an aumbry. The nave and chancel have 2-light north windows without hoodmoulds. Parapet-gabled porch with 2-light side windows and hoodmoulded doorway. North chancel and nave doorways similar; the latter has a C15 image niche above. Tower doorway has a pair of oak-boarded mediaeval doors, and above it is a sanctus bell window. Nave arcade has octagonal columns with heavy moulded capitals and bases; the arches to chancel and south chapel similar. In the chancel a piscina with aumbry and dropped- cill triple sedilia. The chapel of St. John has a similar piscina and sedilia and beside the east window is a niche. In the north east corner of the chancel is a niche, formerly canopied, of uncertain purpose. It incorporates a pair of aumbry-like cupboards, perhaps intruded later, with shelf above. Early C14 rood screen has 4 lights on either side with balusters and traceried heads; the doorway has drop-tracery. The lower half was restored 1874. Octagonal limestone font, c.1300; the bowl carved with sunk quatrefoils, the stem with attached shafts having moulded capitals and bases. In the aisle is a set of 7 C15 pews, most having poppyheads, some with carved figures; all are mutilated. 6 similar pews in the nave have better-preserved figures. In the chancel floor is a marble slab to Martha Turk (spinster), of 1791; another to Samuel Fisher, d.1713. There are fragments of medieval glass in the north chancel windows. Roofs were all renewed in restoration of 1874, the nave has a crown-post roof, chancel a wagon roof and aisle a coupled-rafter roof. For detailed description, see "Suffolk Churches", H. Munroe Cantley.

Listing NGR: TL7236178019