Church Of St Luke

Church of St Luke, Cold Higham

This church dates from the 13th and 14th centuries and was substantially restored in 1879 by E.F. Law, when the chancel was rebuilt, and the north aisle and organ chamber were added.

The building is constructed of coursed squared ironstone with a slate roof featuring tiled ridges to the chancel and copper roofs to the main body of the church. The tower has a stone slate roof. The plan comprises a chancel, organ chamber, nave, north aisle, south chapel and west tower.

The chancel is two bays with a 3-light geometrical east window and windows to the south-east (1-light with cushed heads) and south-west (2-light Decorated). On the south side is a tomb recess featuring colonnettes with moulded capitals, a hollow-chamfered segmental arch and hood mould framing a chest tomb supporting a gravestone with a foliated cross.

The organ chamber to the north has a hollow-chamfered east door and a 2-light window to the north with plate tracery and transom, with a gable above.

The north aisle has a north door with sunk quadrant moulding and 2-light Decorated windows.

The nave has a south door with sunk quadrant moulding and a 2-light Decorated window to the south-west.

The south chapel contains a 2-light Decorated east window with cushed heads to the lights and a quatrefoil to the head, a similar window to the south, and a small low-side 1-light blocked window to the south. This blocked window is possibly Saxon, with splayed jambs and a pointed head carved from a single stone.

The three-stage west tower has a lancet window to the west, a blocked 1-light window or niche to the middle stage west, and a small 1-light window to the middle stage south with a chamfered stone surround and straight head. The bell-chamber has 2-light openings, that to the south with cushed heads to the lights and a quatrefoil to the head. Plain stone-coped parapets run to the north and south with a saddleback roof and 1-light windows to stone-coped east and west gables. The body of the church has plain stone-coped parapets, and the chancel has corbelled stone eaves. Most windows and all doors have hood moulds.

Internally, the chancel arch has plain piers, imposts and a double-chamfered arch dying into the wall. The nave has a 4-bay north arcade of 19th-century date with circular piers and double-chamfered arches. The arch to the south chapel is chamfered and dies into piers with sunk-quadrant mouldings and a hood mould. The chapel has a piscina with a chamfered arch and a fine tomb recess to the south with a triple sunk-quadrant moulded ogee arch featuring ball-flower ornament and flanked by crocketed pinnacles. The chapel contains 19th-century stained glass windows.

Among the monuments is a fine oaken effigy of a cross-legged knight in the chapel tomb recess, resting on a tomb chest with ogee-headed panels containing shields, believed to commemorate Sir John de Patteshall (1292–1349). A small brass wall monument with moulded stone surround commemorates Edward Norris (died 1695). A grey veined marble wall monument to John Aylworth (died 1729) features an open pediment, painted crest and cartouche of arms to the apron. A vertical oval limestone wall monument to Rev. John Nixon (died 1777) has a small cartouche of arms above and a supporting bracket signed Wm. Cox/Daventry. A white marble wall monument topped by an urn commemorates Rev. John Bishop (died 1817).