Church Of St Katherine

Church of St Katherine

An Anglican parish church at Holt, with a 15th-century tower and the remainder rebuilt in 1891 by the architect C.E. Ponting. The building is constructed of dressed limestone with a Welsh slate roof featuring coped verges.

The church comprises a west tower, an aisled nave, a south porch, a chancel, and a north vestry. The 1890s gabled porch has a moulded pointed archway in 13th-century style, with stone carving of St Katherine in a trefoiled star above the door and a saddleback coped verge with finial.

The south aisle displays two 2-light Tudor-arched windows in Perpendicular style with mask terminals to the hoodmoulds on either side of the porch. A moulded cornice runs along the battlemented parapet, which has corner pinnacles. Square-headed 3-light windows occupy the west and east ends of the aisle. The nave clerestory contains four 3-light square-headed windows with gableted pilasters at the east and west corners. The chancel has three 2-light square-headed windows on the south side and a 5-light Perpendicular east window with ogee hoodmoulds. The 1890s north vestry features a pointed moulded doorway, a pointed mullioned and transomed window, and a stack with traceried panels. The north aisle has two-light mullioned windows with Tudor-arched lights and hoodmoulds, with buttresses carrying pinnacles above the parapet. Fielded inscription panels, probably reset from chest tombs, run along the base of the wall. A 3-light square-headed window occupies the west end.

The 15th-century three-stage tower has a moulded plinth and diagonal buttresses with string courses. A Tudor-arched west doorway with double planked doors gives access, above which sits a 3-light Perpendicular window. The middle stage features a large canopied image niche with two relief-carved wheels of St Katherine below. The north and south sides display deeply recessed Tudor-arched lancets with hoodmoulds. The bellstage has 2-light pointed stone louvres and a moulded string course with gargoyles. The battlemented parapet carries carved Katherine wheels and corner pinnacles, topped by a saddleback roof. A shallow projecting stair turret on the north side has arrow-loops.

Interior

The four-bay 19th-century nave roof features hammer-beam trusses with brattishing. The four-bay arcade has moulded pointed arches springing from cavetto-moulded octagonal piers, with a string course below the clerestory. Lean-to aisle roofs rest on stone corbels. A moulded elliptical archway at the east end of the north aisle leads through to the vestry. The 15th-century tower arch has double-cavetto moulding; the coping of the former steeper nave roof is visible on the wall above. A narrow Tudor-arched doorway provides access to the stairs. The chancel arch is pointed with triple shafts and brattished capitals. The chancel itself has a pointed barrel-vaulted boarded roof with ribs and a brattished frieze. A moulded elliptical archway leads to the organ chamber and vestry, with an angel carved on the keystone. The tiled floor contains a 2-seat sedilia with crocketed canopy on the south wall, and a 2-bay piscina and aumbry on the north wall.

Fittings and Monuments

The church contains a vine-leaf carved stone reredos and a Perpendicular stone altar. A brass and wooden communion rail runs before the sanctuary, alongside 1890s seating throughout and a wooden pulpit with traceried panels, given by Reverend H. Moseley in 1891. A 12th-century cylindrical stone font bowl, carved with scallops and chevrons, is reset on a vase pedestal. Some notable stained glass survives: an unsigned east window in memory of Edith Mackay (died 1886) and a south-east aisle window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne from 1925.

Monuments include two hatchments in the tower. The south aisle contains two coloured marble tablets with draped urns by Brewer of Box, commemorating John Godwin (died 1790) and Mary Tayle (died 1802), and a painted stone tablet to John Shewring (died 1691) featuring cupids and a bay leaf oval panel with inscription. Several early 18th-century tablets with semi-circular headed tops include one to Richard Earl (died 1718). Baily family monuments in the tower comprise a moulded stone tablet with scrolled pediment and arms for Elizabeth Baily (died 1705) and a large stone tablet with drapery and gadrooned apron for Jonathan Godwin (died 1761). The north aisle displays 19th-century classical black and white marble pieces, including a tablet with draped urn to Francis Pont (died 1784) by Reeves of Bath.