Church Of St Lawrence

FARNHAM ST 91 NE -

2/12 Church of St Lawrence 14.7.55 GV II*

Parish church. Nave probably C12 origin, south tower late C15 or early C16, north aisle 1835 and chancel and north vestry 1886. Ashlar, banded ashlar and flint, snecked rubble and render. Tiled roofs with stone copings. Plan: nave, chancel, north aisle and vestry, south tower incorporating porch. C16 buttresses to south nave wall and C12 buttress to west nave wall. South tower: embattled with corner obelisks; of 2 stages separated by weathered strings; diagonal buttresses to the first stage; 4-centred, moulded south doorway with studded plank door; 2 light be fry windows with central mullions bisecting a 4-centred head. The nave retains 2 medieval windows with pointed heads but these have been altered and the tracery removed. Chancel windows are C19, of 2 and 3 lights, with idiosyncratic curvilinear tracery and returned labels. The north aisle windows are pointed and untraceried.

Inside the west and south nave walls have a pronounced offset probably marking the wall plate level of the original church. C19 pointed, moulded chancel arch with the inner order springing from corbels. Nave and aisle have plastered barrel roofs. Chancel has a C19 2 bay arch-braced collar roof with the principals springing from corbels. Aisle has 2 iron columns with moulded capitals rather than an arcade. West wall has 2 black letter inscriptions dated 1733. Late medieval 12-sided font with sides continuing as chamfers on the stem and dying into a hollow-chamfered square base. Another font in porch has gadrooned bowl and stem, moulded base and gadrooned stone cover and is probably late C17 or early C18. Early C18 polygonal pulpit with 2 heights of fielded panelling and gadrooned cornice and base. C20 glass. Various C17, C18 and C19 monuments. Other fittings largely C19. (RCHM, Dorset, vol.IV, p.17/18, no.1. Newman, J. and Pevsner, N. The Buildings of England: Dorset, 1972, p.202/3.)

Listing NGR: ST9578315050