Church of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

This is an Anglican church of 12th-century origin, substantially developed in the 13th century, with a 16th-century tower. The building was restored in the late 19th century by Ewan Christian and F S Waller & Son, with further alterations and additions in the 20th century.

The church is built of dressed Cotswold limestone with a slate-tile roof and decorated stone roofing to the bellcote. It is oriented approximately west to east and consists of a three-bay nave with a north aisle, a two-bay chancel with a Lady Chapel to the north, a west tower, and a north porch.

The three-stage west tower, dating to the 16th century, has diagonal buttresses with offsets and a crenellated parapet with slender, crocketed pinnacles at the corners. A moulded offset plinth runs to the base, with string courses marking the top of each stage. The north side carries two memorial tablets to the first stage and a stair turret extending through the first and second stages. The western face has a central four-centred arched doorway beneath a rectangular hoodmould with label stops; the spandrels display Abbot Parker's coat of arms, and the doorway was restored and re-carved around 1993. Above this is a three-light tracery window. The second stage has a small single-light round-headed window, while the third stage has two-light belfry windows on each side.

The south elevation shows the restored south wall of the nave and the two bays of the chancel, divided by offset buttresses. The western bay contains a restored 12th-century doorway with a Carnarvon arched head and nook shafts supporting scalloped imposts with a semi-circular arch adorned with chevrons; the tympanum bears a 19th-century bas-relief Greek cross. Three restored 12th-century windows with nook shafts and moulded semi-circular arched heads are positioned one to the left of the doorway and two to the east bay. The chancel has a two-light pointed arch window to each of its two bays. Above the chancel arch at the east end of the nave stands a 14th-century Sanctus bellcote with a pair of bell openings and a richly crocketed spirelet.

The east end of the chancel features a late-19th-century three-light traceried window beneath a pointed arch. The Lady Chapel has a three-light traceried window beneath a four-centred arch, above which is a stone string course. The change in stonework above and below this window suggests that the roof profile has been altered to form a gable, with stone crosses at the apex. The north elevation of the Lady Chapel has offset buttresses and a three-light rectangular window to the western bay. A catslide roof encompasses the north aisle, which has three-light windows with cusped heads in each of its two eastern bays and a late-19th-century gabled porch to the western bay. To the west of the porch is a two-light cusped window, and a small 13th-century window is located at the west end of the north aisle.

The interior displays a late-15th or early-16th-century styled nave roof, probably reconstructed in the 19th century. It comprises moulded Tudor-arched trusses with moulded wall plates, double purlins, a ridge piece, and pairs of arched and foiled wind braces within each ceiled panel, supported on moulded and crenellated stone corbels. The 13th-century three-bay north arcade has circular piers of alternating coloured stone bands standing on square chamfered bases with moulded capitals supporting double-chamfered pointed arches; the capitals and arches retain evidence of a 13th-century paint scheme. A 13th-century doorway in the north aisle leads to the late-19th-century porch.

The chancel arch has a pair of 12th-century semi-circular jamb shafts with scalloped capitals and imposts; the arch above was rebuilt in the 13th century with a pair of roll mouldings to the soffit. The chancel features a mid-19th-century timber roof and restored 19th-century piscina and sedilia. An early-16th-century four-centred arched opening from the north aisle provides access to the Lady Chapel, which has an early-16th-century collar-rafter roof with moulded tie beams bearing carved central bosses. The former rood stair is located in the south-west corner of the Lady Chapel. A four-centred double-chamfered arch opens to the first stage of the west tower.

Among the fixtures and fittings is a stone font dating to around 1514, featuring a chamfered stem with niches and an octagonal bowl carved with shields held by winged angels, foliage, and roses. The wrought-iron font cover dates to 1964 and is by R W Patterson. An early-19th-century painted timber pulpit, incorporating 17th-century carved panels, was introduced to the church in the 1960s and is believed to have originated in the chapel of Lambeth Palace, London. Late-19th-century pews with trefoil bench ends came from St Mary Magdalene Church, Woolwich, and late-19th-century choir stalls are attributed to Ewan Christian. An oak screen to the tower by F W Waller & Son dates to 1933. A Christ in Majesty fibreglass sculpture above the chancel arch is by Darsie Rawlins (1966), and a sculpture of the Good Shepherd, carved at Oberammergau and burnished gold, is by William Butchart (formerly Ninian Comper's chief painter and gilder), dating to 1962. The tower contains three bells recast by Abraham Rudhall in 1698 or 1699, a bell given as a memorial to Mary Dowling in 1873, and two bells from 1913.

The stained glass includes three windows in the south aisle by Hardman depicting New Testament scenes in roundels, dating to around 1873–76; two windows to the south side of the chancel by George Rogers from around 1851; a late-19th-century east window by Heaton, Butler & Bayne; a central window to the north aisle in the Arts and Crafts style by Veronica Whall (1931); and a west window to the first stage of the tower by Clayton & Bell from around 1875–80.

The monuments include 18th-century wall tablets in the Lady Chapel commemorating tenants and owners of Barnwood Court: a classical marble tablet to Beata Johnson (died 1722) by Stephen Reeve; a rococo-ornamented tablet to Elizabeth Whitehead (died 1750) by J & J Bryan; a marble tablet to Reverend Thomas Parker (died 1800) by John Bryan of Gloucester; and a tablet to William Johnson (died 1749). Further late-18th and 19th-century wall monuments are located beneath the tower, some commemorating the Morris family. Two 18th-century wall tablets to members of the Bubb family are on the external face of the north wall of the west tower.