Church Of St Paul

Church of St Paul at Broadwell is an Anglican parish church of medieval origin with substantial 12th and 13th-century fabric, later medieval additions, and significant 17th-century and 19th-century alterations and restoration work undertaken in 1860.

The church is constructed of coursed, squared and dressed limestone throughout, with large dressed quoins to the south aisle, porch and tower. The north wall of the nave features coursed, squared and finely dressed blocks towards the east end. The chancel is built of limestone rubble with coursed, squared and dressed limestone where rebuilt at the east end. The building is roofed in stone slate.

The plan comprises a nave with a south aisle and projecting porch, a chancel with a vestry on its south side, and a west tower. The 13th-century south aisle contains a 17th-century two-light stone-mullioned window with cavetto chamfers, stilted headed lights, carved spandrels and geometric leaded panes at its west end. A single light flat-chamfered lancet window with geometric leaded panes stands to the left of the porch, with a 4-light double-chamfered stone-mullioned casement to the right. A 14th-century two-light rectangular stone-mullioned window with ogee headed lights and a stopped hood features an animal head stop on the right. A further 14th-century two-light pointed window with ogee headed lights, vesica and stopped hood sits at the east end of the south aisle. The 17th-century porch has a flat-chamfered round arch with hood and stone benches along its side walls. Two large sculptured fragments with foliate decoration in relief, one bearing a pair of swords and probably of medieval origin as grave slabs, are displayed within the porch. A small Saxo-Norman sculptured fragment with interlocking circles and pellet decoration is built into the left-hand wall. A 20th-century plank door within a double-chamfered pointed arched surround with stopped hood closes the porch.

The north wall of the nave contains four 19th-century pointed two-light windows with Decorated tracery and is articulated by a roll-moulded corbel table and a single clamp buttress at its far left.

The chancel retains 12th-century fabric up to the string line and is reinforced by angle buttresses at its east end and clamp buttresses on the north side. A 19th-century three-light pointed window with Decorated tracery occupies the east end, its hood topped with stops in the form of a Bishop's and King's head. The south wall holds a two-light 19th-century pointed window with Decorated tracery. A single light flat-chamfered round-headed window (restored) stands in the north wall towards the east end, with a further two-light 19th-century pointed window with Decorated tracery and carved head stops to the hood. Dentil decoration runs along the eaves cornice on both north and south sides.

A late 19th-century entrance to the tower is positioned in the angle between a stair turret at the north-west corner and the tower itself, closed by a 19th-century plank door. Reused as a lintel above this door is a finely carved 12th-century semi-circular tympanum with geometric rosette patterns within a central sunken semi-circle, interlocking semi-circles forming part of the upper margin and chequerboard decoration along the bottom.

The three-stage Perpendicular tower features diagonal buttresses and an embattlemented parapet. A 19th-century two-light Decorated west window with stopped hood lights the west face. Two-light belfry windows on all four sides of the third stage are supplemented by a single lancet below the belfry window on the south side. The roof incorporates slightly stepped gable coping to the south aisle, nave, chancel and porch, with an upright cross finial at the apex of the porch gable.

The interior features a 13th-century nave arcade of four bays with cylindrical piers on square bases. An engaged semi-circular column forms part of the respond at the west end of the nave arcade. The arches to the nave arcade are double-chamfered and pointed. A tall pointed double-chamfered arch separates the nave from the tower base, with a 13th-century double-chamfered chancel arch with imposts. A large probably 19th-century squint stands to the right of the chancel arch. A 14th-century piscina with credence shelf sits within the left reveal of a window in the south wall of the south aisle towards its east end, topped by a pointed canopy with crocketing and finials. A reset 13th-century trefoil-headed piscina stands in the south wall with a doorless aumbry opposite.

The nave roof comprises 19th-century pointed arched trusses rising from wall posts to a collar, whilst the chancel roof is similar but painted and gilded, with wall posts supported by corbels bearing either foliate decoration or carved heads. 19th-century stained glass fills windows in the chancel, east window of the south aisle and an adjacent window in the south wall.

Furnishings include an early 15th-century octagonal stone font with quatrefoil decoration adjacent to the south door, a 19th-century stone pulpit in the north-east corner of the nave, 19th-century pews, choir stalls and an altar table.

Monuments in the south aisle comprise, from the west, a monument to Herbert Weston (died 1635), his wife and child comprising alabaster figures kneeling at a prayer desk under a Renaissance canopy flanked by free-standing columns, with a painted heraldic shield above flanked by pointed finials. A Classical-style monument to Robert Hunckes (died 1565) features a limestone tablet with raised edges flanked by free-standing Ionic columns, a rectangular pediment over and a painted coat of arms within a semi-circle above. A 17th-century slate tablet to members of the Hodges family with an open segmental limestone pediment stands at the east end of the south aisle. The north wall of the nave bears a heraldic brass to Piers Thursby (died 1904). The north wall of the chancel contains two 13th-century monuments, one to Emily Dryden (died 1843), and a white on black marble monument to John Frodsham (died 1791) and his wife Anne (died 1830). The vestry contains two black marble wall tablets: one of 19th-century date to Reverend Richard Harvey (died 1814), and another to Richard Jonson (died 1674) and Jonson Makapeth with a segmental limestone pediment and Latin inscription. Several recumbent ledger stones are laid in the floor of the nave and aisle, most notably one in the south aisle to Anthony Hodges and family of 17th to 18th-century date.