Church Of St George

The Church of St George is an Anglican parish church dating from the late 12th century to the early 13th century, with subsequent work in the 14th and 15th centuries, and a restoration in 1873 by T.H. Wyatt. The building is constructed of random flint and limestone, with limestone dressings and slate roofs, with lead to the aisles and porch. It comprises a nave, north and south aisles, a south porch, a chancel, and a west tower. The 15th-century porch has a moulded outer arch and a low-pitched parapet, with parallel buttresses, a sundial over the arch, and two mass dials. There are good gargoyles. The inner 13th-century door is set within a crocketed nodding niche. The clerestory has two-light cinquefoiled windows, while the aisles have 3- and 4-light 14th-century square-headed windows. The chancel is largely from the early 14th century but was rebuilt in 1873, featuring two-light windows and a 3-light east window with reticulated tracery. A south priest’s door is visible, along with a clasping buttress in the south-east corner. The three-stage tower has a 3-light window over the door and 2-light bell openings, topped with a crenellated parapet and gargoyles. A north aisle door has been reset.

Inside, the nave has three bays with double-chamfered pointed arches on an arcade of round columns; those on the north have round capitals, while those on the south are carved with varied transitional leaf forms, likely reworked. A west bay of the north arcade was added later. The church has a 19th-century five-bay timber roof, the trusses supported on wall posts and corbels. A tall 15th-century tower arch is present, alongside an opening for a rood stair on the north, and a trefoiled squint from the south aisle. A small niche is located in the west wall. The chancel arch is simply chamfered, and it incorporates an open 19th-century stained timber hammerbeam roof. The south side of the sanctuary features a double recess, and there are openings to an aisle chapel on the south and to the organ chamber, formerly the Chapel of the Holy Trinity (endowed 1449), on the north, the latter having a corbel and piscina. Aisle roofs are 19th-century. Fittings include a 15th-century font with an octagonal bowl and quatrefoiled panels, set on a raised base of the tower. A late 19th-century pulpit, with sunflower panels on a stone base, is also present, alongside a 19th-century sanctuary rail. Monuments include three 19th-century wall tablets in the nave, a Great War memorial in the north aisle, a 20th-century limestone tablet in the north aisle, a marble tablet in the south aisle to John Canning (died 1841), and a brass near the pulpit depicting two standing figures with an inscribed panel, to Thomas Goddard and his wife (died 1607). A painted panel, featuring early Victorian royal arms and wings with painted commandments, is in the chancel, likely an 18th-century painting refreshed in the 19th century.