Church Of St Eadburga

Church of St. Eadburga

This Grade I listed church contains work spanning from the Norman period to the 19th century. The building comprises a Norman nave with north and south doors, a 13th-century south porch and aisle, a 13th-century chancel, and a Perpendicular west tower. It underwent restoration and received a new vestry designed by Hunt in 1875-76.

The exterior is constructed of ashlar except for a short length of limestone rubble walling at the south-west corner of the nave. The chancel is buttressed on its south side, while the nave is buttressed on the north. The two-stage tower is built of ashlar with diagonal west buttresses and an embattled parapet adorned with four pinnacles. An enriched string runs below the parapet. The belfry contains four two-light windows with quatrefoils and limestone slate louvres. The roof is of limestone slate with slightly stepped coping and decorative roll, gable and eaves finials. A 19th-century vestry extends from the north wall of the chancel.

The south porch doorway is pointed with a deep moulded architrave. Within it stands a Norman south doorway featuring three orders of chevron moulding and diaper work on the tympanum, with restored jamb shafts bearing carved capitals. An early oak studded door with strap hinges and an iron fastening bar approximately two metres in length survives. A two-light stone-mullioned window occupies the left wall of the porch, beside an eroded stone memorial tablet to members of the Keyt family on the exterior left wall.

The south wall contains two two-light pointed 19th-century windows with cusping and diamond-shaped hood stops in the south aisle. The east wall of the aisle displays a 13th-century window with Y tracery and cusped lights. The south wall of the chancel has a three-light pointed 19th-century traceried window, a planked priest's door with decorative hinges in a deeply moulded pointed surround with hood, and a scratched sundial dated 1625 with the Keyt family arms above. A pointed three-light 19th-century window pierces the east wall. The north wall of the chancel contains a pointed three-light 19th-century traceried window. The north wall of the nave has two pointed two-light 19th-century traceried windows flanking a blocked round-headed Norman doorway. A pointed west door to the tower resembles the priest's door but features a stopped hood. All windows except the east window of the chancel contain 19th-century diamond leaded lights. A flat-headed 13th-century two-light window with trefoil heads occupies the south-west corner of the nave.

The interior is dominated by a simple nave with a 19th-century timber roof of tie beam construction with arched braces below and king post with curved braces above. The south aisle of two bays is separated from the nave by two flat chamfered pointed arches rising from rectangular piers. A tall pointed arch with carved heads beneath abaci and remains of zig-zag painting on the chamfers leads to the tower. The chancel is entered through a flat chamfered pointed arch with engaged round columns. A quatrefoil window opens from the south aisle to the porch. A blocked squint and the remains of an entrance to the rood screen survive at the east end on the left. A trefoil-headed piscina is set in the south wall.

The church preserves notable stained glass. The east window of the south aisle incorporates 17th-century heraldic glass depicting the Keyt and Coventry arms. Fragments of 16th-century English and Flemish glass in the south window of the chancel depict Joseph and his brethren and a man sowing seed. The east window contains 20th-century stained glass.

The font stands in the centre of the aisle towards the rear of the church, comprising 13th-century steps and pedestal supporting a 15th-century Perpendicular style font with an octagonal bowl decorated with quatrefoils. The pews are mostly 19th-century, though some have reused medieval bench ends with blind tracery. A very fine carved pulpit and tester dated 1679 survives, along with a 17th-century German singing lectern. The nave contains a 19th-century wooden plaque commemorating Ebrington's Cow Charity on the wall by the south door, and Royal Arms dated 1725 over the tower arch. The south aisle holds a defaced tomb with coat of arms beneath the east window. The chancel contains a painted stone recumbent effigy of Sir John Fortescue in legal robes on a chest tomb with Gothic panels at the far end on the left. Opposite stands an altar tomb of circa 1632 commemorating Sir William Keyt with Corinthian columns and heraldry. To its right is a classical marble monument of circa 1662 commemorating Sir John Keyt, featuring busts of Keyt and his wife with falls of fruit and heraldry.