Church Of St Faith

Church of St. Faith

This is a church of 12th-century origin, substantially rebuilt and extended over several centuries. The building comprises a chancel, nave, vestry, south porch, and west tower with spire, constructed in coursed and uncoursed limestone rubble with limestone ashlar dressings. The spire, porch, and late 19th-century vestry are later additions.

The earliest architectural features are Norman, including a notably fine priests' door on the south chancel wall. This door has two orders with carved capitals and shaft rings to the columns, enriched with dogtooth ornament to the arch. The south wall of the nave also retains a Norman door of similar quality, again featuring two orders with shaft rings and carved capitals, dogtooth ornament, and a beasts' head terminal to the hood mould.

The chancel contains three early 14th-century one-light windows on the south wall, alongside the Norman priests' door which may have been reset during this period. The north chancel wall holds a late 15th-century three-light Perpendicular window and an early 14th-century one-light window. The east window is an exceptional early 14th-century reticulated three-light example.

The nave's north wall features three late 15th-century four-light transomed windows with cusped heads. The south wall contains one early 14th-century curvilinear three-light window and two early 15th-century eight-light transomed windows with cusped heads and human and beasts' heads to the hood mould terminals.

The south porch, dated 1625 on a cartouche above the doorway, is a substantial addition featuring a pointed arch with moulded architrave and hood mould. The original panelled double doors remain, alongside a two-light window with cusped heads. The porch has a gabled roof surmounted by a fleur-de-lys finial. The nave walls are topped with battlements, probably of early 17th-century date.

The west tower contains Norman lancet windows and is surmounted by a string course above corner buttresses and gargoyles at the base of a battlemented parapet. The recessed spire dates to approximately 1625 and was restored in 1852, with two-light belfry openings.

The late 19th-century vestry adjoins the nave and contains one two-light window in 14th-century style, with a plank door set in the basement that descends via steps.

Interior Features

The chancel floor contains late 17th-century and 18th-century ledger stones alongside the Purbeck marble base for a removed 14th-century brass, of which only the outline remains. The north window arch features quatrefoil decoration on its intrados and originally framed the tomb recess or chantry chapel of John of Bledbury, priest, who died in 1372. The semicircular chancel arch of 12th-century date has engaged columns enriched with vine-scroll strapwork and ball flower carvings to the capitals. A late 19th-century roof of three bays spans the chancel.

The nave contains ledger stones and the indent of a 19th-century brass on the aisle floor. A Jacobean pulpit and a 15th-century octagonal font with Jacobean cover are notable features. The nave has a five-bay late 19th-century roof supported on original corbels.

The east window contains 15th-century glass relocated from other parts of the church, with additional 20th-century glass added in 1947. Stained glass from 1930 and the late 19th century illuminates the north and south windows respectively. The south nave windows contain glass dated 1889 alongside reset 15th-century glass.

Monumental Features

The north wall of the chancel displays a large architectural memorial to Mrs. Mary Packer, who died in 1719, executed in grey and white marble with alternately blocked pilasters framing the inscription. The composition features a central sarcophagus and bust flanked by two putti. A wall tablet on the north wall has a cartouche framed by Baroque decoration, while a mid-18th-century wall tablet surmounts a blocked door on the south side.

On the east wall of the nave south of the chancel arch stands a monument by W. Tyler to the second Viscount Ashbrook, who died in 1780. It comprises a white marble inscription below a grey marble obelisk forming the background to a composition in brown and white marble, with a sarcophagus surmounted by two putti trailing a garland of flowers around a brown marble urn. North of the chancel arch is a plainer wall tablet to the third Viscount Ashbrook, created by Flaxman in 1802, featuring an urn on a pedestal. On the north wall of the nave is a large tablet of reredos type with a bust and putti (noted by Pevsner) commemorating Sir Edward Homes, physician to Queen Anne.