Church Of St Guthlac

Church of St Guthlac

This is a 13th-century church that has undergone significant repair and alteration over the centuries. The top stage of the tower was rebuilt, the nave was re-roofed and repaired in 1621 following a spire collapse, the chancel was rebuilt in 1626, and further repairs and alterations were carried out in 1775. The building was restored in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of coursed squared limestone with limestone dressings and lead roofs.

The chancel contains a four-light Perpendicular east window with hood mould and label stops, and two-light Perpendicular windows to the north and south with hood moulds. A basket-arched priest's door on the south side has a continuous hollow chamfer framed by small continuous wave-mouldings and a hood mould. Above the door is a tablet with small fluted Ionic pilasters supporting a decorated frieze and moulded cornice, framing an elaborate cartouche with the arms of Sir Robert Banastre. The base is inscribed "ROBERTUS BANASTREIUS MILES / QUID RETRIBUAM TIBI DONINE PRO OMNIBUS / BENEFIIS MIHI DATIS ANNO DOMINI 1626 / STULTE HAC NOCTE". The chancel has a wave-moulded plinth continued across four offset buttresses on each side, string courses at sill level joining the stops of hood moulds of windows and at the base of a plain parapet. The wagon roof of the chancel is expressed externally in the rounded profile of the lead roof and a semi-circular east gable, with finials to the buttresses flanking the east end.

The three-bay nave has lancet windows to the north and a blocked north door, all with hood moulds, and two-light windows to the south with sexfoiled circles to their heads and hood moulds. A blocked south door has a large offset buttress in front. Similar buttresses flank the east and west ends, with a chamfered plinth to the south side only and a battlemented parapet.

The three-stage west tower has a west door with continuous double roll mouldings, the outermost with a fillet, a six-panel 18th-century door and hood mould. Three niches above have later 14th-century chamfered cinqfoiled ogee heads and hood moulds. Cusped one-light windows to the north and south of the middle stage have hood moulds, paired lancet bell-chamber openings and a plain parapet with corner pinnacles. Diagonal offset buttresses flank the tower.

The interior contains a single-stepped doorway from a vestibule in the tower to the body of the church, fitted with 18th-century six-panel double-leaf doors and HL hinges. The floor is stone-flagged throughout the nave and chancel. The chancel has a three-bay wagon roof with carved pendant bosses. A double-chamfered chancel arch has polygonal responds and moulded capitals. A lancet-headed opening to the south side of the chancel arch, blocked at the east end, has a sunk quadrant moulding to its surround.

The nave has a four-bay arch-braced tie beam roof supported by wall-posts on carved head corbels; the middle corbel on the south side is larger and inscribed "SRB / 1621". Decorative carving adorns the wall-plate and cusping runs to the principals.

The chancel contains stalls dated 1628 with ogee-arched panels to the west side of the stalls within the chancel arch, possibly part of a former rood screen, and to the stall fronts with a strapwork frieze to the south side and a frieze to the north side depicting sea-horses, Banastre arms and a shield inscribed "B / RM / 1628". The stalls have misericords carved with the following subjects from north-east: a mask, arms upheld by angels, an ox, a male head with asses' ears, a goat, a head, a winged cherub's head, a lion, a cat's head, the Lamb, a female head and a griffin. Shallow scalloped round-arched niches behind the stalls were formerly filled by effigies of the Apostles and St Paul; bases inscribed with their Latin names remain.

The west gallery is composed of Sir Robert Banastre's former chancel screen with fluted Ionic pillars on high bases and a frieze carved with cartouches of arms. Those at the centre and either end are upheld by kneeling cherubs, those either side held by mermaids and mermen with winged horses trampling dragons on either side. Charities are recorded on the gallery front, with Hanoverian Royal arms to the central panel, painted on cast metal.

Wall-paintings in the chancel above the stalls form part of the original scheme and were restored between 1962 and 1966. Large figures of prophets appear on the north wall and Evangelists on the south wall, with Nicodemus on one side of the east window and Joseph of Arimathea on the other, all within shell-arched niches divided by pilasters.

The pulpit has a back panel and tester probably made up from Jacobean pieces around 1800. Panelled box pews are present throughout. The north nave and chancel windows contain 17th and 18th-century stained glass figures, probably continental in origin, with canopies of around 1350.

Monuments include a wall monument to Sir Robert Banastre, died 1649, with a demi-figure in an oval niche surrounded by a wreath, an apron with inscription, volutes with garlands and a steep broken pediment framing a cartouche of arms. A marble wall monument to Reverend Richard Forester, died 1769, has a curly bracket and cartouche with inscription topped by a coat of arms; it was erected by his eldest brother Pulter. Two further early 19th-century wall monuments to later rectors are also present.