Church Of St Thomas A Becket

TL 85 NE GT. WELNETHAM STANNINGFIELD ROAD

5/109 Church of St Thomas a Becket 14.7.55

I

Church, mediaeval, altered 1839 and 1883. Nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch, north vestry. Rough-cast rendered flint rubble with limestone dressings. Plaintiled roofs to nave and south porch, slated roofs to chancel, aisle and vestry. The chancel has C13 work; 3 lancets in the north wall, simple double-bowl piscina, and triple-arched sedilia with shafts having moulded capitals and bases, a dado moulding on north and south walls. The nave possibly rebuilt early C14; the west parapet gable has ball-flower carving to the kneelers and quatrefoil west window; north (blocked) and south doorways have simple mouldings and rear segmental arch with hoodmould, the counterboarded south door possibly original; south 2-light window and double bowl piscina; north arcade of 2 bays, with octagonal piers having moulded capital and base (the north aisle demolished before 1829 and rebuilt 1839). The south chancel doorway inserted early C14. 2 2-light windows inserted into chancel south wall C15. The nave clerestory formed and roof rebuilt c.1500, with principal rafters, butt purlins, arch-braced collars and wall-pieces; clerestory windows of one light, rendered. Simple timber-framed south porch added c.1500, with coupled rafter roof; also chancel 4-light east, and 2-light south windows. The ceiled coupled rafter roof to chancel possibly mediaeval. Weatherboarded belfry added to west end of nave roof 1749, with slated pyramid roof, modillion eaves and weathervane, "at the cost of James Merest". During alterations of 1839, a probably C12 chancel arch with later sidelights was replaced by a large unmoulded arch; a C14 stone tracery panel was taken from the north sidelight and reset as a window in the porch wall. Some stone cusping, c.1300, now reset in the C15 clerestory windows. C15 octagonal limestone font with traceried panels on bowl. A moulded C16 oak door reused and repaired for C19 vestry. C20 octagonal pulpit has some reused carved C16 panels. A window in the south chancel wall is filled with mediaeval glass of several dates, reset at random; fragments of similar glass reset in other windows. 3 mural tablets in the chancel: to Richard Gipps, d.1660; to Charles and Elizabeth Battely, d. 1722 and 1752; to Revd. Thomas Lord, d.1788.

Listing NGR: TL8781359343