Church Of St George

Church of St George

An Anglican parish church at Hampnett, dating from the 12th century with significant 15th-century additions. The building was restored in 1868 by G.E. Street, with interior painting undertaken by Reverend W. Wiggin and the firm Clayton and Bell around 1871.

The church comprises a nave with a projecting south porch, a west tower, and a chancel, all covered with stone slate roofing. The 12th-century chancel is constructed of limestone rubble with clasping buttresses at the east end and buttressed side walls. A flat-chamfered eaves cornice runs around the east end. The chancel's south side features a tall lancet window with an ogee curved cinquefoil head and stopped hood. A two-light hollow-moulded stone-mullioned window with cinquefoil-headed lights has carved spandrels within a deep surround with hollow and casement mouldings, topped by a stopped hood with scrolled stops. A small round-headed 12th-century window exists in the east gable end, along with a small rectangular light with double-chamfered surround and shutter. The north wall contains a two-light hollow-moulded stone-mullioned casement with carved spandrels, cinquefoil-headed lights, and a deep surround with hollow and casement mouldings. A small round-headed light with flat-chamfered surround is positioned to the right.

The nave's north wall dates to the 12th century and features a later flat-chamfered plinth. Two round-headed lights are present, one being 19th-century work with a flat-chamfered surround. A 19th-century plank door with decorative strap hinges has a 19th to early 20th-century surround with a 12th-century diapered tympanum.

The three-stage Perpendicular tower features diagonal buttresses with offsets and a moulded plinth. The second stage has a single cinquefoil-headed light with a stopped hood on the south side. Two-light belfry windows are decorated with blind quatrefoils, stopped hoods, and stone slate louvres. The battlemented parapet is punctuated by a string course below and carved head gargoyles placed centrally. Additional gargoyles in the form of torsos are incorporated into the third stage on the north and south sides.

The nave's south walls were rebuilt in the 15th century. A two-light window to the right of the porch, probably dating to the 17th century, has cinquefoil-headed lights in Perpendicular-style tracery, with a rectangular hollow-moulded surround topped by a hood with curved stops. An early studded plank door within the porch, with 20th-century fillets, is surrounded by a deep moulding with hollow and casement mouldings and a hood with scrolled stops. The 15th-century porch features a flat-chamfered segmental-headed entrance arch of two orders, with the inner arch rising from engaged canted corbels. Stone bench seats are built into the interior of the porch.

Nineteenth-century rainwater heads in the form of castellated turrets ornament the nave and chancel. The gables of the nave, chancel, and porch are finished with stepped coping and upright cross finials.

Interior

The interior of the nave is plastered and decorated with late 19th-century painting comprising purple outlining of dressed stone and stencilled flowers or continuous foliate decoration around all openings. This decoration was probably once more extensive around the tower arch. The choir and sanctuary and their respective arches are painted in similar fashion, with the choir arch outlined as the openings in the chancel. The splays of windows lighting the choir are decorated with stencilled flower and star motifs. The sanctuary arch is painted with zig-zag decoration. The walls of the sanctuary display single blue flower motifs with tendrils, each within a block outlined in purple to imitate masonry, with occasional large foliate roundels in the choir and sanctuary. Each quarter of the quadripartite sanctuary vault contains a painted seated figure, probably representing the four evangelists.

A tall double-chamfered pointed arch spans from the nave to the tower, with engaged octagonal capitals. The 12th-century choir arch has a plain inner arch and a roll-moulded outer arch with chevron and star mouldings forming the outer surround. Jamb shafts to the outer order feature charming carvings of pairs of doves on each capital. The sanctuary arch is constructed of two orders with keeled jamb shafts and stalk capitals. A 12th-century quadripartite ribbed vault within the sanctuary rises from low corbels with stiff stalk capitals, showing the transition to Early English style. The choir roof is panelled with painted star decoration. A 19th-century roof to the nave features arch-braced collar with windbracing.

A red tile floor covers the nave, with some decorative encaustic tiling in the nave and sanctuary. A round-headed surround frames a 12th-century north door. A rebated Tudor-arched doorway provides access to the stairs to the former rood loft in the south wall, with a flat-chamfered Tudor-arched access to the former rood loft positioned high up in the wall above.

Furniture and fittings include a painted 19th-century organ at the base of the tower, an octagonal Perpendicular font with quatrefoil decoration on each face positioned inside the south door, and 19th-century pews. A 20th-century pulpit incorporates 17th-century carved oak panels, probably reused. A picture of The Last Supper hangs on the north wall of the nave. Nineteenth-century stained glass is present in the east and north windows of the sanctuary, the north window of the choir, one window on the south wall of the nave, and the nave west window.