Church Of St Lawrence

SP 14 SW WESTON SUBEDGE CHURCH STREET (west side)

4/121 Church of St. Lawrence 25.8.60

GV II*

Parish church of C13, heavily rebuilt 1853-4 by F. Preedy; C15 tower. Limestone ashlar with plain tiled roof. Un-divided nave and chancel, without aisles; west tower and south porch. Nave and chancel walls are buttressed, with angle buttresses at east end; moulded string beneath sills, continuing over buttresses; C19 moulded eaves. Dec. north and south doorways to nave with moulded trefoil heads. Three trefoil-headed nave lancets, and two Dec. 2- light windows with geometrical tracery to chancel in side walls; 4- light Dec. east window; all windows in chancel being C19 restorations, as is whole east wall. Dec. priest's chanel door on south side. C19 porch with small 2-light over arch. Three stage Perp. tower with diagonal buttresses; square stair turret on north side; crenellated parapet with finely moulded crocketed pinnacles and corner gargoyles. 3-light Perp. west window, and 2-light openings to each bell chamber wall. Whitewashed interior, apart from east wall having a stone arcaded reredos behind the surviving stone 'mensa'. C19 timber roof divided by a large tie-beam truss on carved stone corbels; 4 bays each to nave and chancel, arched braced trusses with cusped strutting and curved wind braces. Trefoil headed piscina and 2 square headed aumbries in south chancel wall; mortuary tomb dated 1880 by Gaffin in north, together with marble memorial to Pharamus Fiennes, dated 1708; inscription tablet surmounted by heraldic shield flanked by flaming gadrooned urns. Below an Elizabethan brass memorial to William Hodges, died 1590. Upper rood loft doorway survives in south wall. Late C17 hexagonal timber pulpit; C19 choir stalls and pews; 2 carved stone figures beneath C14 canopies from original east wall now stand in chancel; font in nave: C20 bowl on C13 base with attached E.E. shafts. Stained glass to all windows of 1854 and 1867 by Wailes Below and outside south chancel windows lies medieval stone coffin. The Church stands next to site of former manor house and, as with all the towered churches below the escarpment, has landscape importance. (D. Verey, Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds, 1970).

Listing NGR: SP1281740585