Church Of St Paul

Church of St Paul

Anglican parish church of early 14th-century origin, with 15th-century additions and substantial restoration and extension in 1852. The church comprises a nave with north aisle and south porch, a 19th-century chancel with vestry on the north, and a west tower.

The exterior walls are built of limestone rubble, except for the chancel and vestry which use coursed squared and dressed limestone, and the tower which is faced in ashlar. A timber-framed porch with ashlar side walls provides the main entrance.

The south wall of the nave displays a single Decorated two-light window with a quatrefoil and scroll-moulded hood. Above this is a square stone sundial dated 1655 with a metal gnomon in the upper right corner. The south porch, added in the 19th century, is gabled with a pointed-arched entrance, trefoil-headed windows to the returns, and decorative barge boarding. Within the porch sits a double plank door with a 19th-century flat-chamfered triangular-headed surround and moulded hood.

The north aisle is lit by a two-light window with quatrefoil on its north wall, and a three-light almost round-headed window with restored hollow-moulded mullions at the west end. A small plank doorway with decorative hinges is set within a flat-chamfered surround, itself contained within a neo-Norman style round-headed surround decorated with fish-scale work on the tympanum and lozenge decoration on the hood.

The 19th-century chancel features two trefoil-headed lancets flanking a monument to Samuel Harrison (died 1811) and other family members, set into a trefoil-headed niche with ballflower decoration at the top. A two-light Decorated window with quatrefoil lights the east end, while an eroded monument sits within a flat-chamfered surround to the left. The north wall has a trefoil-headed lancet. The adjoining flat-roofed vestry has two-light stone-mullioned casements with trefoil-headed lights and foliate spandrels on the east and north walls. These partially obscure a three-light Perpendicular window that originally lit the east end of the north aisle.

The early 14th-century tower is two-staged with a moulded plinth and diagonal buttresses. A large stair projection on the south side contains single-light windows. The west face has a three-light Perpendicular window. A moulded string separates the stages. Single-light pointed belfry windows feature stone louvres. The tower is topped with a ribbed broached spire carrying four lucarnes and a weather cock, with stepped capping and upright cross finials at the gable ends.

The interior displays a three-and-a-half bay nave arcade with octagonal piers and capitals supporting pointed archways. A tall pointed flat-chamfered tower arch rises above the nave. The chancel is separated by a pointed double-chamfered arch on flat-chamfered imposts with simple responds. Traces of wall painting survive above the rood beam set into the wall over the chancel arch.

The nave retains a panelled wagon roof with moulded beams featuring foliate bosses highlighted in gold and red at the intersections. A large carved face with beard, possibly a green man, appears at the centre of one tie beam, with a foliate boss at the same point on the westernmost tie beam. The chancel has a 19th-century wagon roof with stone wall posts below the wall plate, ballflower decoration at the top, and angels at the base of the posts. The north aisle features an early unpanelled wagon roof with a ridge purlin. The tower contains a ribbed stone vault with a central bell-rope hole.

The stone flag floor supports a 14th-century octagonal stone font at the base of the tower. The chancel contains a 17th- to early 18th-century carved oak chair. The altar is furnished with a late 19th-century early 20th-century table with pierced tracery and an ornate stone reredos comprising trefoil-headed niches with foliate decoration. Three circular wrought iron hanging lights and candlesticks hang within the church. A hatchment bearing the arms of George III sits at the base of the tower. The nave and chancel contain late 19th-century and early 20th-century pews and a wooden pulpit. Stained glass of 19th-century date fills the chancel and tower windows.