Church Of St Columba

CHURCH OF ST COLUMBA

The Church of St Columba was probably built in the early 12th century, with the western part of the chancel and the nave walls dating to this period. The north aisle and all or part of the south aisle were added in the later 12th century. The chancel was extended eastwards and the aisles apparently rebuilt in the 14th century, at which time new fittings including the chancel sedilia and the font were also installed.

There was further remodelling in the 15th century, when the tower and clerestory were added and the east window replaced. The north aisle was pulled down in 1808, preserving the north arcade and reusing some older materials including windows. Restoration of 1871–73 included the construction of the south porch. The north organ chamber was added in 1891, and the nave and aisle roofs were renewed in 1929, reusing much of the old timber.

The church is largely built of coursed limestone rubble with stone dressings, with some ashlar. The tower is uncoursed limestone rubble. The nave, aisle, porch and tower have lead roofs; the chancel is slated. The nave interior is stripped, the chancel plastered with exposed stone dressings.

The plan consists of a nave with a two-bay south aisle, south porch and blocked two-bay north aisle. The west tower has a shallow, rectangular south-east stair turret. The chancel has a north organ chamber.

Exterior

The three-stage 15th-century west tower is embattled and has a very high, moulded plinth, with the stages separated by strings. It has diagonal buttresses and a rectangular stair turret like an over-sized buttress. The blocked four-centred west door has a continuous moulded arch, square hood mould and carved spandrels. Above it is a tall, two-light Perpendicular window; there are similar, smaller two-light windows in each face of the bell stage and a very small, rectangular opening in the second stage on the west face.

The nave has a shallow pitched roof and small plain parapets. There are three plain two-light windows with square heads on the south only. The east nave gable rises above the roof line. The south aisle is unbuttressed and has much restored Perpendicular windows with trefoiled ogee lights under square heads with hood moulds. Those in the south wall have three lights, and those in the east and west walls two lights. The 19th-century south porch has a pointed outer opening with continuous mouldings under a hood mould, and two-light Perpendicular style windows with four-centred heads. The nave south door has a continuous double ogee moulding and a trefoil headed niche above.

The chancel has diagonal south-east and north-east buttresses of two stages. There is a blocked late 12th-century doorway in the north (the Victoria County History suggests this led to a former chapel or sacristy, though this need not have been the case and it may have been simply a priest's door) and to the right of it a round-headed recess, probably for a tomb, and perhaps also dating to the late 12th century. To the left is a square, later medieval low-side window or squint. The chancel south windows are both heavily renewed, but are 14th-century Decorated in style. That to the west has two ogee lights with an ogee quatrefoil in the head, and the other to the east has three-light intersecting Y-tracery. The masonry is too heavily renewed for any building break between the 12th-century and 14th-century work to be visible. The chancel east window is of five lights with a four-centred head; the chancel north window is similar but of three lights. The north vestry is in a harsher Gothic Revival style with plate tracery trefoil in its east window.

The north aisle, which has a plain parapet and a small, two-stage buttress at the west end, preserves the outline of the former north aisle. There is a single 19th-century lancet with a trefoiled head in each arch, but these are set within blocked openings, the westernmost round-headed and probably a former Georgian or churchwarden's gothic style window of 1808, the other two four-centred and probably reused 15th-century windows removed in the 19th century.

Interior

The nave and aisle walls are stripped stone; the chancel is plastered and painted. There is a tall, pointed tower arch the full width of the tower, with three chamfered dying orders of 15th-century form. The nave has a very shallow, plain roof probably of the 15th century, much restored in the 20th century. It has a tie beam, short posts, curved arch braces to the tie beam and arched braces up to the roof. The roof is boarded behind the rafters. The former north arcade is visible inside the nave. Both north and south arcades appear to have been built in the late 12th century and altered in the 14th century. The east respond and first pier of each arcade has a square, 12th-century capital, while the other capitals on each side are moulded. The arches are of two hollow chamfered orders with a hood mould on the nave side and date to the 14th century, perhaps suggesting that two-bay 12th-century chapels were lengthened to aisles in the 14th century, retaining the east responds and first piers, but rebuilding the rest including new arches.

The tall, 15th-century, pointed chancel arch is of two hollow chamfered orders, with a hood mould to the nave side. The inner order is supported on half-octagonal responds with moulded capitals and bases. A blocked rood stair door is visible to the north of the chancel arch. The blocked 12th-century door or opening to a former chapel is visible in the south wall of the chancel, and in the south chancel wall there is a blocked rectangular opening, apparently a former squint. There is a 19th-century doorway to the vestry and arch to the organ chamber on the north. The chancel has a three-seat, 14th-century sedilia and an aumbry, but no piscina.

Principal Fixtures

The very fine, though very worn, early 14th-century font has a rounded bowl with a king's head in the style of Edward I, a winged figure, a monster and one unrecognisable motif on its lower corners. It stands on a cylindrical central shaft and four moulded corner shafts, the latter apparently replacements. The cover with ogee traceried buttress forms is 19th-century.

The three-seat early 14th-century sedilia in the chancel has each niche with a trefoiled ogee head and the seats level. There is a hood mould with head stops and finials over each arch, and the niches are divided by moulded shafts very similar to the outer shafts on the font, suggesting a similar date for the font and sedilia. There is a plain aumbry in the north chancel wall. The south aisle has a piscina with a shouldered head.

The chancel has 19th-century encaustic tiles. Simple 19th-century choir stalls have shouldered ends decorated with sunk roundels. The polygonal 19th-century timber pulpit has traceried sides. An unusual late 19th-century or early 20th-century brass lectern has a winged female figure supporting the bookrest.

The east window of 1893 is possibly by Clayton and Bell. The north-east and south-east windows of the sanctuary are signed by A Stoddart of Nottingham; one is dated 1916. One lancet in the north nave wall is by Powell. There is a brass to Horatio Woodhouse (died 1679), rector for almost 37 years, in the chancel and some 19th-century wall slabs.

History

Collingtree is a small parish whose history is closely linked to that of neighbouring Milton Malsor, and for much of the middle ages, the advowsons (the right to appoint the rector) of both parishes were held jointly but divided into shares or moieties with rights in each. This arrangement was altered, and the advowson of Collingtree fully separated from that of Milton Malsor, in the mid-15th century.

The late 12th-century aisles at Collingtree are the earliest evidence for a church there, but Collingtree itself existed at the time of Domesday and the aisles were probably added to an early 12th-century church comprising an aisleless nave and square chancel. The chancel was extended and the aisles remodelled in the 14th century, and other features of this period, including the font and the sedilia, suggest a fairly comprehensive reworking of the church. The tower dates to the 15th century. The north aisle was pulled down in 1808, leaving the arcade buried in the nave north wall, and the whole church was restored in the later 19th century, with further work in the 20th century.