Church Of St Edward

Church of St. Edward

This Anglican parish church in Evenlode is primarily 12th century in origin, with significant 14th-century additions and 19th-century restoration work undertaken by J.E.K. Cutts in 1879. A vestry and porch were added in the 19th century. The building is constructed of coursed squared and dressed limestone and sandstone with a stone slate roof.

The church comprises a nave with a north vestry, a south aisle, a projecting porch from the west end of the south aisle, a west tower, and a chancel.

The chancel features a 14th-century south wall with two small 19th-century two-light pointed-arched windows decorated with quatrefoils and stopped hoods. A central 19th-century plank door with decorative hinges sits within a moulded surround with a stopped hood. A fragment of reused dogtooth ornament appears in the wall to the right of the priest's door. The east window is a 19th-century three-light pointed window with tracery.

The nave's north wall is buttressed and contains two 19th-century pointed two-light windows with tracery and stopped hoods. Below the right-hand window is a flat-chamfered surround of a blocked north doorway. An original lancet window with a restored head toward the west end has a flat-chamfered surround. The south wall of the nave features a 15th-century two-light pointed-arched window with a stopped hood to the right of the tower. A square ashlar chimney with octagonal capping serves a lean-to boiler house against the west wall of the south aisle.

The west tower is three stages of Perpendicular design with diagonal buttresses and strings between stages. The upper part of the two-light Perpendicular west window displays cinquefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil with carved spandrels and stopped hood. Below this is a rectangular 19th-century plank door within a heavy-pegged surround. Flat-chamfered slit stair lights appear toward the corner of the south face. The first stage features a two-light window with reticulated tracery and stopped hood to the south. A 19th to 20th-century clock sits above. A single light with a trefoil head surmounts two-light belfry windows with trefoil heads, quatrefoils, and stopped hoods on all four sides of the third stage, which includes limestone louvres. The tower is topped by an embattlemented parapet.

The south aisle has 14th-century diagonal buttresses and a 14th-century two-light window to the right of the porch with cinquefoil-headed lights, a quatrefoil, and stopped hood. A 19th-century pointed-arched two-light window to the right displays a quatrefoil and stopped hood. A projecting stone water spout marks the east end.

The porch is buttressed and dates to the 19th century. It features a 20th-century plank door within a segmental-pointed surround with a stopped hood. Stone bench seats line the side walls within the porch, which has a flag floor. Double 19th-century plank doors with decorative hinges occupy the original moulded pointed-arched surround with stopped hood. Above the doors is a niche with a roll-moulded surround and a cinquefoil-headed arch set back within it.

The roof features flat and slightly stepped gable-end coping with upright cross finials on roll-cross saddles at the east end of the nave, chancel, and porch, and roll-cross saddles on the gable ends of the south aisle.

Interior

The interior is plastered. The chancel arch is pointed with two orders and was rebuilt in the 14th century, reusing parts of a former 12th-century arch. It is decorated with chevron ornament around the outer order. The piers have engaged columns with scalloped capitals of differing designs. Two 19th-century pointed arches with diamond-shaped piers lead to the 19th-century vestry on the left. A segmental-pointed arch opens to the 19th-century priest's door and aumbry in the south wall. A pointed flat-chamfered arch leads to the west tower. The nave arcade comprises two bays with diamond-shaped piers and double-chamfered arches. An aumbry sits in the south wall of the nave.

In the south aisle, stone steps formerly led to the rood loft. A segmental stone piscina projects from the window ledge to the right of the altar. A 14th-century single plain stone slab sedile sits to the right of the piscina. Depressions carved into the stone window ledge above represent a miniature games board for nine men's morris.

The 19th-century chancel roof comprises a collar with bracing forming a semi-circle below. The nave roof matches the chancel but with bracing to principal rafters only and a spine beam, with bosses where the bracing of principal rafters meets the spine beam. The south aisle has a simple 19th-century roof with collar and straight bracing.

The chancel floor is of coloured tile, while the nave has 20th-century red and black floor tiles.

An octagonal font features quatrefoil panels on its faces, floral bosses alternating with shields, one bearing two ragged staves set upright on chamfered undercutting. A 19th-century upright cupboard with a fielded two-panel door stands in the interior. Panelling to waist height lines the nave from the 19th century.

A fine 14th-century oak pulpit in the north-west corner is decorated with blind tracery and carved heads. The south aisle contains a 19th-century benefaction board at its west end. Nineteenth-century white-on-black marble monuments stand at the base of the tower. A fragment of medieval window glass remains in the quatrefoil of the window adjacent to the porch.