Church Of St Lambert

Church of St Lambert

This Perpendicular church, dating to the 15th and 16th centuries, stands on Main Street in Burneston. It is built of coursed squared stone and ashlar with lead and graduated slate roofs, and comprises a west tower, nave with south and north aisles, south porch, chancel with north vestry.

The west tower rises in three stages with diagonal offset buttresses. The western buttresses to the first stage feature cusped ogee-arched niches. On the south side, a buttress-like stair tower is present. The second stage has a small single-light opening with hoodmould. The belfry openings are elliptically-arched with two cusped-tracery lights. A chamfered band runs at belfry level, and the buttresses terminate with angled corner gargoyles at the top. The tower carries a plain slightly projecting parapet with corner pinnacles and finials, and a splay-footed stone spire. The west window has a pointed arch with hoodmould, contains three cusped-tracery lights, and is topped by a clock face.

The nave extends four bays. The south porch features pinnacled diagonal angle buttresses and gabled embattled parapets, with a moulded pointed-arched doorway. An inner doorway of similar design contains a board door. Both the south and north aisles have offset angle buttresses between bays. The aisle windows are elliptically-arched with hoodmoulds and three stepped cusped lights. The east ends of the aisles contain larger pointed-arched windows of three lights with rectilinear tracery. A small elliptically-arched door to bay two of the north aisle has a hoodmould. Embattled parapets with crocketed pinnacles surmount the aisle buttresses. The clerestory is lit by elliptically-arched windows with hoodmoulds of three stepped cusped lights, set between pilaster buttresses with crocketed pinnacles rising above the parapets. The clerestory parapet is embattled with a gable cross.

The chancel comprises three bays. Its south side displays offset angle buttresses between each bay, topped with pinnacles rising above the parapets. Windows are large with pointed arches and hoodmoulds, containing three lights with rectilinear tracery. A gable cross crowns the parapet. The north vestry extends two bays with angle buttresses and pinnacles. Its east end has a flat-headed two-light window with hoodmould and cusped tracery, while its west side carries a three-light window matching those to the south. The east window is large, with a pointed arch and hoodmould, containing five lights with rectilinear tracery.

The interior contains four-bay north and south arcades with octagonal piers, moulded capitals and double-chamfered pointed arches. The tower arch is similar in design. A tower vault of three ribs rounds the central ring. The chancel arch features a moulded pointed arch with hoodmould, half-octagonal capitals and moulded columns.

The font dates to 1662 and is octagonal in bowl form, standing on a round moulded shaft and bearing the inscription 'RW RB 1662 RK'. A 14th-century piscina is present, as are 14th-century sedilia comprising three stalls with cusped gabled canopies with crockets, separated by small gabled buttresses. Flanking the east window are two ogee-headed cusped niches with crockets, each with half-octagonal corbels carved with heads at the bottom.

The nave pews form a complete set from 1627, simple box pews with straight-headed ends, each topped with a central knob and strapwork carving to the top panel. The north aisle contains a three-tiered pew with flanking Ionic pilasters supporting a frieze with pedimented panel above bearing a coat of arms. A stone panel inscription records that Thomas Robinson of Allerthorpe Hall gave £50 in 1627 for the making of all the nave pews.