Parish Church Of St Constantine

The Parish Church of St Constantine is a medieval parish church, substantially restored in the late nineteenth century. The building shows evidence of fourteenth-century work, with the majority of the structure dating from the fifteenth century.

The church is constructed of dressed Hurdwick stone brought to course with granite dressings and has a slate roof. The building comprises a west tower, a nave, a chancel, four-bay north and south aisles (each with one bay extending to the chancel), a south west porch, and south east and north east porches (the latter two probably dating from the early nineteenth century). The design is in the Perpendicular style.

The east walls of the north and south aisles are flush with the east wall of the chancel, all terminating in coped granite gables with kneelers; these may have been rebuilt. Three three-light granite Perpendicular east windows with hoodmoulds feature tracery probably from the fifteenth century, though the mullions appear to have been replaced. Changes to the plinth and straight joints indicate rebuilding at the west and east ends.

The south side features a south west porch and a small south east porch opening into the Bedford family pew. Three three-light nineteenth-century granite Perpendicular windows on the south side and one at the west end of the south aisle have hoodmoulds. The south east porch is not tied into the aisle and has a coped gabled parapet with kneelers, a chamfered arched doorway beneath a blocked window, and two chamfered slightly pointed lancets to the returns.

The north side has a similar but slightly larger north east porch. The westernmost bay of the aisle contains a fifteenth-century shallow-moulded arched priest's doorway with pyramid stops and a hoodmould. A projecting five-sided stair turret to the former rood screen rises in the bay next to the north east porch. The north aisle has three-light granite Perpendicular windows with hoodmoulds, though mullions and jambs have been replaced.

The three-stage battlemented west tower has diagonal buttresses with set-offs to the south west and north west corners, terminating in corner pinnacles with castellated cornices beneath obelisk finials. The south east buttress is set back to the bottom stage and diagonal above. A projecting north east stair turret with set-offs and slit windows is battlemented, and the north east tower buttress is set back. The tower has a plinth and chamfered string courses. The west face features a deeply-moulded arched west doorway under a hoodmould with a stone relieving arch above, and a three-light nineteenth or twentieth-century Perpendicular granite west window. A rectangular glazed opening at bellringers' stage has a cinquefoil-headed light and carved spandrels. The clock on the east face has a moulded granite frame. Belfry openings on all faces consist of two cinquefoil-headed lights below a cusped roundel.

The south west porch has a coped granite gable bearing an eighteenth-century sundial and a shallow-moulded almost round-headed doorway. The porch features a nineteenth-century ceiled waggon roof with moulded ribs, carved wall plate and bosses, and slate benches. The steeply-pointed narrow inner doorway with deep moulding and hoodmould may date from the fourteenth century.

Interior

Considerable re-arrangement is evident in both the north and south arcades, probably reflecting fifteenth-century rebuilding of earlier fourteenth-century aisles. The west respond of the north aisle may be fourteenth-century, distinguished by different moulding and a taller capital and shorter pier than the rest of the arcade. The westernmost pier also has a taller capital and shorter height than other arcade piers but carries the same four hollow and four shaft moulding and supports the same double hollow-chamfered arch. Variations in the height of piers and capitals occur throughout the south arcade. Moulded granite corbels that formerly supported the arches into the chancel chapels suggest the east end may have been wholly rebuilt; one similar granite corbel on the south side originally supported the chancel arch. The present chancel arch comprises a pair of nineteenth-century moulded timber arches supported on paired brackets.

A tall chamfered tower arch is present. Ceiled waggon roofs with moulded ribs and carved bosses extend throughout. The nave roof has a carved wall plate and bosses that appear to be original. Aisle roofs have moulded wall plates and nineteenth-century bosses; the chancel roof appears wholly nineteenth-century.

The chancel features nineteenth-century tiling and a circa 1930s reredos with a carving of the Last Supper recessed behind panels with traceried canopies. The font is probably nineteenth-century with an octagonal bowl carved with blind quatrefoils alternating with other motifs, mounted on an octagonal stem with blind traceried panels.

The Bedford family pew has Gothic late nineteenth-century panelling above a dado and contemporary benches with blind traceried panels and coats of arms. The Bedford servants' benches feature various designs of traceried panels, and the vicar's seat is set within the Bedford servants' block of benches.

The late nineteenth-century timber pulpit is octagonal on a tall stem with moulded ribs and deeply-cut blind traceried panels. Nave seating is also late nineteenth-century with plain recessed panels. A painted Royal Arms of William IV hangs in the tower. The rood loft stair remains intact with chamfered four-centred arches to the doorways.

A wall monument to William Salmon, died 1750, features Corinthian columns flanking the inscription panel with a broken pediment above containing armorial bearings. Several nineteenth-century windows are present, including a Hardman window in the easternmost bay of the north aisle commemorating Robert Stephens Jago, died 1866.