Church Of St Laurence

Church of St Laurence

Parish church with nave, chancel, north aisle, west tower, and south porch. The building dates from the late 12th and 13th centuries, with 15th-century additions to the west tower. The tower parapet was restored in 1633, and the church underwent late 19th-century restoration. Constructed in coursed sandstone and limestone rubble for the tower and south porch, with squared and coursed rubble stone used for the nave and chancel. Stone dressings mark the openings, quoins, and copings. The nave is roofed with concrete tiles, while the chancel has slates.

The south side of the nave contains three Perpendicular windows: one of three lights under a pointed head, another of three lights under a straight head, and a four-light window with cusped tracery and a hoodmould decorated with lozenge stops. The chancel south side has a single-light Decorated window with a pointed head and a two-light Perpendicular window under a straight head. A corbel carved with a face projects beneath the eaves. The east window is of two lights in 19th-century Perpendicular style. The north side features a 19th-century lancet window and a 15th-century four-centred arched doorway. The north aisle has three-light Perpendicular windows, a four-centred arched doorway, and a further three-light window on its east wall. Fine animal gargoyles decorate the string course below the parapet.

The tower consists of three stages with a polygonal north-west corner stair turret topped by an embattled parapet. Diagonal buttresses support the structure, with a moulded string course to the first stage. The parapet features pierced and cusped quatrefoil decoration with a restoration plaque inset and corner crocketted pinnacles. The west facade displays a Tudor arched doorway with hoodmould and a plank door, above which sits a three-light Perpendicular window with hoodmould. The top two stages contain two-light windows with dripstones; those on the bell stage are cusped with dense quatrefoil piercing. The south porch has a three-light Perpendicular window on its west side and a restored segmental-headed doorway. A transitional south door features a segmental arch with two outer mouldings along the jambs and arch—one a roll, the other a crenellation with triangular merlons.

The interior contains a 13th-century six-bay arcade with clustered shafts and moulded arches opening onto the north aisle. A triple chamfered tower arch connects to the nave. On the south wall at the chancel arch is a piscina with an ogee head, above which is a blocked rood loft door. A squint connects the north aisle with the chancel. The chancel arch is 13th-century with mouldings. Two piscinas with trilobed heads occupy the chancel south wall, and an aumbry with panelled Jacobean doors is set into the north wall. The nave has an open 19th-century rafter roof on a 15th-century embattled wooden wall plate; the chancel is covered by a 19th-century wagon roof.

Furnishings include a Norman font in the nave and some 15th-century traceried bench ends. Jacobean panelling appears beneath the tower arch, and a polygonal Jacobean pulpit with Jacobean and later panelling occupies the south wall. Further Jacobean panelling crosses the squint. A fine early 20th-century War Memorial window adorns the south wall, with 19th-century stained glass in the aisle windows. A late 19th-century wooden chancel screen divides the chancel. Medieval wall painting fragments survive on the reveal of the north window and above the east window. Late 19th-century painted censing angels flank a seated Christ, and late 19th-century stencilling and painted foliage embellish the roof. Seventeenth-century communion rails with turned balusters in three separated sections within 19th-century frames are installed. Nineteenth-century stained glass fills the east window.

The monument to Sir John Newton (died 1568) is now located in the south porch, having been re-erected there in 1883 after removal from the church. It is in Renaissance style, comprising an effigy on a chest tomb with two panels of kneeling mourners—boys on the left and girls on the right—beneath a canopy supported on six fluted Ionic columns. The canopy carries a tall entablature and projecting moulded cornice adorned with strapwork and classical motifs. An inscription in rhyming couplets is painted on the rear wall.