Church Of The Holy Cross

Church of the Holy Cross

This is a parish church of late 12th-century origin, extended in the 13th century with the tower rebuilt in the 15th century. The nave, south porch and chancel were substantially renewed by the architects Rickman and Hussey between 1839 and 1841 in 13th-century style. The building is constructed of flint, knapped and coursed, particularly in the 19th-century sections, with a plain tiled roof.

The church comprises a nave and chancel with a north aisle and chapel, a west tower, and north and south porches. The west tower features a plinth, three string courses, triple offset buttresses and battlements. A south-eastern octagonal stair turret rises from the tower. The west door and triple-light window form a unified composition, with the string course raised above the window enclosing a shield. Additional shields appear in the spandrel of the hollow-chamfered doorway, alongside an inscription reading "Orate P.T. boys adjustor isti op", which records the financing of the church's rebuilding by Thomas Boys. A sundial is positioned on the stair turret and a clockface on the eastern face of the tower.

The nave, chancel and south porch are all constructed of squared, knapped and coursed flint and date entirely from 1839-41. They feature plinths, corbel tables, parapets, buttresses and quatrefoil-headed fenestration in shafted surrounds. The east window is a triple lancet with moulded frame. The north chapel also has a triple lancet east window, though this is genuinely 13th-century. The north chapel and aisle contain lancet windows and 14th and 15th-century trefoiled and ogee-headed lights. The north porch, likely not part of the 1839-41 work, has a four-centred arched doorway and probably dates to the 19th century.

Internally, the tower steps up from the nave with a hollow-chamfered arch on round responds with octagonal bases and caps. A simple chamfered arch on imposts leads to the north aisle, now blocked with a smaller doorway. The nave and chancel form a unified design of high quality for their date, with string courses and shafted reveals to windows with moulded drip moulds. The north arcade comprises four bays of chamfered arches with drip moulds on piers topped with stiffleaf capitals, extending a further two bays from the chancel to the chapel. The chancel arch features hammer-beam and multiple mouldings on triple clustered shafts. The side windows in the chancel have an inner tracery screen. Two stone transverse arches support the roof; the eastern arch stands on shafted responds. The north aisle and chapel form a single construction, with a roof of five crown posts on crenellated wall plates with moulded tie beams.

Fittings are predominantly mid-19th-century in date, including the font, a trefoil-arcaded stone pulpit, sanctuary panelling, rails, benches and pews. An ancient octagonal font bowl stands beneath the tower. A trefoil-headed piscina is located in the north chapel. Glass in a north window includes 14th-century fragments depicting St. Michael and a bishop, and 15th-century glass depicting a bishop. The chapel lancets contain glass signed E.S. 1899, also signed AS EA EP.

The church contains significant brasses and monuments. A brass commemorates William Boys (died 1507), showing 15-inch crudely engraved figures with five sons and three daughters, with a small Trinity above the principal figures. A brass for Thomas Engeham (died 1558) depicts an armoured man and his wife, approximately 18 inches high, with two sons and five daughters below, an achievement above, and inscribed verse. A brass for Vincent Boys (died 1558) shows figures two feet high of a man and wife with an achievement above. A further brass on the north wall depicts a lady with damaged inscriptions, approximately 15 inches high, reset on a wooden block.

Monuments include a wall tablet for St. Thomas Engeham, erected in 1621, constructed of black marble with white surround, fulsome inscription, strapwork base and ribband side pieces with death's heads and symbols of time, following a pattern similar to local chest tombs. A monument to Edward Engeham (died 1636) is a wall tablet in black and white showing kneeling figures beneath a coffered arch, with four sons and two daughters kneeling below, an apron draped with a cherub and death's head, and a broken pediment supported on Corinthian pilasters. Gabriel Richards (died 1672) is commemorated by a black wall tablet with white and gilt surround containing a Latin inscription; Richards founded the almshouses still standing in Goodnestone Street. The base features a swagged design with enriched brackets, draped and foliated side scrolls, and a triple recessed segmental head with cherub and three arms cartouches. The monument to Brook Bridges (died 1717, erected 1752) is signed by P. Scheemakers and comprises a veined white marble wall plaque with garlanded scrolled sides, a winged cherub in a segmental head with urns above, and a cartouche on the base.