Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

Parish church with probable Norman origins, rebuilt in the 15th century. The church is constructed of coursed blocks of purple-coloured volcanic ashlar, with some particularly large blocks at the base of the tower. Beerstone ashlar is used for architectural detail. The roof is slate.

The building is small in plan, comprising a nave with north porch, a narrower and lower chancel, and a tall west tower. The tower dominates the church, an effect emphasized by its position at the uphill end.

The west tower is tall with three stages, diagonal buttresses at the west end, and set back buttresses at the east end. It has an embattled parapet with moulding coping and carved gargoyles. On the north side is a semi-hexagonal stair turret rising above the tower parapet, with its own embattled parapet and gargoyles surmounted by a wrought iron weather vane. The stair turret is lit by small quatrefoil lights and includes a Beerstone image niche with a crocketted canopy and carved base, containing a statue of the Virgin and Child, probably dating to the 15th century. The belfry windows are two lights with Perpendicular tracery. The west side has a two-centred arch doorway with a moulded surround including a band of fourleaf motifs and a plain hoodmould. Above is a three-light window with Perpendicular tracery and plain hoodmould. On the south side, a cinquefoil-headed lancet lights the ringing chamber. The south side of the nave has a two-window front of three-light windows with Perpendicular tracery and plain hoods; another similar window is at the east end of the chancel and another on the north side at the east end of the nave. The other window on the north side of the nave is 16th or 17th-century, two lights with volcanic stone, square-headed with a chamfered mullion. The 15th-century porch between the two windows is gabled with a two-centred, almost round-headed outer arch with moulded surround. The porch roof is original, a two-bay ceiled wagon roof with chamfered ribs. The church north doorway is a two-centred arch with moulded surround, above which is a corbel, presumably for an image.

Interior: The nave has a good ceiled wagon roof with moulded ribs and purlins, good carved oak bosses, and carved openwork wall plate. The chancel roof is a plain plaster vault of uncertain date. The tall tower arch features a Beerstone panelled soffit above imposts carved with foliage and representations of the Green Man and other men holding their mouths open with their tongues hanging out. The chancel arch is a plain two-centred arch, plastered over. Window embrasures have moulded rear-arches and nook-shafts. The walls are plastered and the floor is tiled, including some 17th and 18th-century grave slabs. The 19th-century altar table is flanked by probably 18th-century nowy-headed painted commandment boards. The stalls are 19th-century oak in Gothic style. Remains of a good late 15th-century oak chancel screen survive, a five-bay arcade missing its wainscotting and tracery but retaining a good coved vault in Gothic style and two bands of delicately carved frieze, now painted in 20th-century colours. The 19th-century lectern and pulpit are in Gothic style; the pulpit has fielded panels and crocketted pilasters on the corners. 19th-century plain pine benches are present. The Norman font is made from a single block of volcanic stone, an unornamental girdled font of the simplest kind, with a 17th-century oak ogee font-cover. There is a 19th-century oil lamp in the nave and contemporary corona lucis in the chancel. A probably 13th-century stone coffin cover with a raised cross is fixed to the tower wall. Also in the tower is a board painted with the arms of George II and a painting of the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. Some 19th-century coloured glass is present in the tracery.