Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

An Anglican parish church of mixed medieval periods, significantly developed from the 12th century onwards. The church stands on the south side of Main Street in Bourton-on-the-Hill, built of coursed squared and dressed limestone.

The building comprises a 12th-century nave, a 14th-century chancel and north aisle, a 15th-century south aisle with nave clerestory and three-stage tower, and a 19th-century porch. The plan arranges a west tower; nave with north and south aisles; porch from the west end of the north aisle; a south porch opposite the north porch, projecting from the south aisle; and chancel.

Exterior detail is extensive. A plinth with moulded top surrounds the tower and chancel. The nave displays a clerestory with parapet coped with roll moulding and string below, matching the treatment on the north and south aisles and porches. Five gargoyles project from the string on the north side of the nave. The clerestory contains four windows of three lights with stone mullions, cusped heads and carved spandrels. The north aisle features two tall three-light windows with trefoil heads; a string forms a hood to these windows with the addition of diamond stops on either side. At the west end stands a two-light Perpendicular window with stopped hood. At the east end, a three-light stone-mullioned casement displays Perpendicular tracery and hood with diamond stops. The north porch contains a studded door within a moulded pointed arch with stopped hood. A small statue of St Lawrence sits in a niche with decorative canopy above the door. The south aisle matches the north aisle but has a diagonal buttress at the east end and traces of three scratch sundials between the windows of the south wall. A three-light stone-mullioned window with Perpendicular tracery sits at the east end. The south porch features a flat coped gable and upright cross finial over a double studded plank door within a moulded pointed archway with flat-chamfered imposts and stopped hood. The west tower has diagonal buttresses with embattlemented parapet. A studded plank west door with angular pointed head and flat-chamfered surround sits beneath a restored two-light window with reticulated tracery and stopped hood. Numerous single lights, some with ogee heads, pierce all faces of the tower. Two-light belfry windows display vesicas and limestone slate louvres with stopped hoods. An internal stair rises the south-west corner with a pointed stone spirelet bearing a weather-cock projecting above parapet level. The chancel has diagonal buttresses and a parapet with cusped diaper in panels and crocketed finials at the corners. A three-light east window displays reticulated tracery. The south wall contains a 19th-century two-light window with tracery and stopped hood, and a blocked ogee-arched doorway lower left. The north wall has two windows: a three-light stone-mullioned window with trefoil-headed lights and stopped hood, and a two-light stone-mullioned casement with ogee cusping and stopped hood.

Interior arrangements begin with a 19th-century panelled door in a moulded arch from the north porch into the north aisle. A three-bay arcade of pointed flat-chamfered arches on hexagonal piers divides the nave; similar arches lead to the chancel and tower. A wooden gallery erected around 1827 by Reverend Samuel Warneford stands at the west end of the north aisle. A 19th-century panelled double door within a 15th-century four-centred arched doorway leads from the south porch into the south aisle within a moulded surround. The spandrels carry a dragon in relief on the left and a leopard on the right. A primitive carved bearded face appears on the right jamb.

The south aisle contains a three-bay arcade of the 12th century comprising three circular piers with scalloped capitals and pointed arches, the latter probably rebuilt in the late 12th century. At the east end stand reputed remnants of an upper portion of a 14th-century stone screen from Moreton-in-Marsh, comprising six trefoiled lights in three pairs with blind ogee cusped quatrefoils above each pair. The 20th-century mullions are intact except where omitted to form an entrance at the far right. A step rises to the chancel. A 14th-century piscina with trefoil arch, crocketed gable and pinnacles has been reset in the jamb of the rebuilt south window.

Nave fittings include a 15th-century octagonal font with tracery panels at the rear of the church; a Standard Winchester bushel and beck dated 1816 at the east end; and 20th-century pews and pulpit. The north aisle holds a painted wooden triptych of 1928 at the east end.

Chancel fittings comprise an English-style altar with dossal and riddel posts with carved and gilded angels by Edward Bateman, dated 1928, and 19th-century stained glass in the east window.

Monuments in the floor of the south porch include a 18th-century ledger to Ann Gibbs and a highly decorated but eroded ledger to the wife of Alexander Popham, dated 1688. Monuments on the south wall of the south aisle comprise: a white marble on black tablet with urn to William Bateson, died 1819, above the south door; a similar undated tablet without urn to William Gibb to the right; a white marble on purple and grey decorative tablet with urn to Robert Bateson, died 1763, to the left; a white marble on black decorative tablet with urn and heraldic shield to Susannah Bateson, died 1768, to the left; a grey marble decorative tablet with heraldic shield and cupids to Robert Bateson, died 1736, to the left; and a grey marble tablet with open segmental pediment, heraldic shield and cupids to Kemp Harward, 'Doctor in Physick', died 1743. A wooden plaque dated March 1831 records the endowment of 'The Retreat for the Aged' above a pier opposite the Kemp Harward memorial.