Church Of St Gregory

Church of St Gregory

This is a parish church with 13th-century nave and chancel, a 14th-century tower, and substantial restoration and extension undertaken in the mid-19th century.

The church is constructed of flint with limestone dressings to windows and doorways, and slate roofs. It comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, north transept, north aisle and south porch.

The south porch is rendered with a crenellated gable, while the random flint walls elsewhere are exposed. The roofs are steeply pitched, and the top of the nave and chancel walls clearly show that the roofs have been raised at some point. The south elevation has three two-light Y-tracery windows with hood moulds to the nave and two similar windows to the chancel, all dating to the mid-19th century restoration. The hood moulds are similar in style to the 13th-century piscina inside the chancel. A priest's door in the south chancel wall has a simple pointed arch with cavetto and hood moulds. The east window has three lights with Y tracery. The north transept and north aisle have similar windows to the south elevation, along with paired lancet windows. The 14th-century west tower is buttressed and features Y-tracery belfry lights and a two-light early 15th-century west window. In the north-west corner of the tower is a narrow round-headed arched doorway providing access to the stairs.

The interior largely reflects the mid-19th-century refurbishment, which was funded by the Duke of Grafton. A late 13th-century piscina survives in the south-east corner of the chancel, featuring engaged shafts supporting a pointed trefoil arch with bar tracery. The chancel arch, also probably 13th-century, is a simple pointed arch without capitals, with pyramid stops to the jambs. The tower arch is likely 14th-century and has half-round responds with polygonal capitals. The arcade between the nave and the 19th-century north aisle comprises two arches with a slender central pier having a large square capital and two massive rectangular outer piers; a further wider arch opens from the nave into the north transept. The north aisle roof timbers are exposed, whereas the roofs of the nave and chancel have been ceiled and plastered. On the south wall of the nave are arms of William III painted on boards, dating to around 1695. The east window and south nave windows contain early 20th-century stained glass.

The church originally consisted only of a 13th-century nave and chancel; the west tower was added in the 14th century. The church underwent considerable modification in the 19th century. The first phase of work, around 1840, included the construction of the north transept. The second, begun in 1863, was more comprehensive and consisted of the addition of the north aisle and extensive interior refurbishment; this work was carried out at the expense of the fifth Duke of Grafton. The roof was raised at some point, either during the 1840 work or possibly earlier, which is clearly visible both externally and in the north aisle. The interior may have been ceiled and plastered at the same time. While the architect for the new additions is not recorded, it is possible that John Henry Hakewell FRIBA (1810-80), who designed the parsonage house in 1861, also undertook the 1863 extension and refurbishment of the church. Hakewell was appointed to inspect churches in the Diocese of Ely and Norwich proposed for alteration or rebuilding, and worked on numerous churches and parsonage houses in Suffolk as well as church restorations in Wiltshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.