Church Of St Luke

Church of St Luke

The Church of St Luke at Linch is a parish church with a complex building history spanning over three centuries. The nave was constructed around 1700, with significant extensions and alterations made throughout the 19th century.

The original church was built between 1700 and 1712 on a site at Linch that had been consecrated in the early 16th century, replacing an earlier medieval church at Woodmans Green which had become derelict. An inscription over the south door records: "APRIL THE FIRST 1700 PETER BETTESWORTH WAS CHOSE CHURCHWARDEN FOR TWO REPAIRE AND REBUILD THIS CHAPPEL IN LINCH AND DID CONTINUE TWELVE YEARS-1712."

In 1814, the church was enlarged at the expense of Charles William Taylor Esquire. The west end was extended, the original doorway was moved from the west to the south side with a porch built over it, and a bell turret without a spire was constructed over the new section. The bell from this period bears the date 1814.

A small vestry was added at the south east end after 1874, probably with a small chancel built at the same time. In 1886, the church underwent substantial restoration by Lacy W Ridge FRIBA, the Diocesan Surveyor, in the Early English style. This work included enlarging the chancel, altering the windows, rebuilding and extending the bell turret with a new spire, and restoring and reseating the nave. The porch received a front archway dated 1886. This restoration cost £850, raised by public subscription. In 1897, a south east chapel or organ chamber was added, given by the Hawkshaw family, probably also designed by Ridge.

Materials and Construction

The church is built of local sandstone coursed rubble with ashlar dressings and a tiled roof. The bellcote has a tiled base with a wooden bellchamber and shingled spire.

The Plan

The building comprises a four-bay nave with a west bellcote, south porch and south east vestry. The one-bay chancel has an attached south east chapel or organ chamber.

Exterior

The nave has a gabled roof with terracotta ridge tiles and a cross-shaped terracotta saddlestone at the east. At the western end is the bellcote with a battered tiled base, square wooden louvred bellchamber and short broached shingled spire surmounted by a cast iron weathervane with gilded cockerel. The nave has a deep plinth. The west end features a circular window in the gable with two lancet windows below, all with drip moulds.

The south side is dominated by a gabled south porch of stone rubble with an outer arch of ashlar, stone saddlestone, kneelers and an arched opening with dripmould extending into a patterned gable. The cambered-headed south door bears the inscription recording the original 1700-1712 building period. The south window of the nave is arched with a quatrefoil above two trefoil-headed lights.

Attached to the eastern end of the south side is a small gabled vestry with a lancet window. The north side of the nave has two windows to the eastern side: a large arched window with two trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil above, and a lancet window.

The chancel has a gabled roof with terracotta ridge tiles and an elaborate terracotta saddlestone at the east end. The east end has three widely spaced lancets. The north side has a lancet window. The south side comprises a gabled south east chapel or organ chamber with an octagonal stone chimney at the western end and deep plinth. On the south side are two lancet windows and a wide flat-arched doorcase with a plank door bearing ornamental iron hinges.

Interior

The nave has a 19th-century four-bay roof with crownposts and collar beams. There is a circular stone font and a semi-hexagonal wooden pulpit on a stone base.

The two-light north window contains 15th-century German glass, probably from the Rhineland and dating to around 1465. According to an old Kelly's Directory, this glass was formerly in the east window. The western panel depicts the Ascension and the eastern panel the Descent from the Cross. The inscription under the western panel is leaded separately and therefore probably did not originally belong to that panel, and part of the inscription under the eastern panel is also from another source.

The lancet window on the north side is in Art Nouveau style, dating to around 1912, and depicts angels and lilies. It is a memorial window to Harry Godwin, Rector of Linch from 1883 to 1912, made by James Powell and Sons of the Whitefriars Glass Works, EC1.

The south window of the nave dates to around 1921. The eastern light depicts St John the Apostle and Evangelist holding a book and chalice with a dragon, while the western light depicts St Cecilia, the Patron Saint of Music, playing the regals, a medieval portable organ. This window commemorates John Clarke Hawkshaw, a churchwarden, and his wife, and was made by William Morris and Company.

The chancel is separated from the nave by a large stone chancel arch with stiffleaf capitals. The roof is wooden with scissor bracing. The south wall features three-bay pointed arched arcading with marble columns between the chancel and organ chamber. The Sanctuary has a 19th-century decorative tiled floor.

The lancet window on the north side of the chancel depicts St Luke, the patron saint of the church, and was erected around 1897 as a memorial to John Marsh, Churchwarden, and his wife. The east window depicts the Good Shepherd in the central light with angels above, while the flanking windows depict elements of the Angelic Host. This window was a gift from the parishioners of Linch in 1898.

The organ was installed in 1897, built by E O Yorsten of Vauxhall, London, who specialised in rebuilding organs.

Historical Context

The parish's first church existed before 1086 and is recorded in Domesday Book as having been in existence during the reign of Edward the Confessor. It stood on a site between Didling and Bepton but was in ruins by around 1500, probably due to population decline in the southern part of the parish. It was replaced by a second church at Woodmans Green, a more populous part of the parish, which became derelict around 1620. Although church registers record that the Minister, Mr Arthur, had stones and mortar brought to rebuild the church, he died suddenly from a fall from his horse and work was halted.

The present church occupies the same site as the second church and is a rare surviving example of an early 18th-century rural parish church with substantially intact later 19th-century Early English style additions and alterations. A sketch plan of 1906 by Lacy W Ridge proposing a north aisle was never executed.