Church Of St Lawrence

Church of St Lawrence

This parish church dates from the 13th century and later, with a major 19th-century rebuild undertaken by G B Crickmay. The building is constructed of local lias and Cary stone, cut and squared with ashlar dressing. The roof is of plain clay tiles between coped gables with finials, with sheet aluminium roofing behind a parapet to the aisles.

The church follows a 4-cell plan comprising a 2-bay chancel, 3-bay nave, north and south aisles of 2 bays each, and a southwest corner tower which also serves as a porch, with an organ chamber alongside. The chancel is mostly 19th century in 13th-century style, featuring a rough plinth, a triple lancet east window with a vent above, and a 19th-century traceried window on the south side. A blocked simple chamfered pointed arched doorway is visible on the south side. The organ chamber has corner and bay buttresses with offsets. Its east wall contains a 4-centred arched 3-light window in 16th-century pattern tracery set in a deep recess, with a 19th-century door in the north wall.

The north aisle displays two restored windows of 15th-century style: a 2-light and a 3-light window to the north wall, and a 3-light 4-centred arched window with 16th-century tracery in a deep recess to the west wall. This west window sits beneath a label featuring square Tudor rose stops. The nave contains a double cusped lancet window in the north wall and a matching west wall window. The south aisle has two 2-light windows with 16th-century hollow chamfered mullions and 4-centred arched heads beneath flat heads with squared labels. Between these windows lies a blocked moulded 4-centred arched doorway.

The tower is a rebuild of 1705 executed in two stages with angled corner buttresses on the south face rising less than one stage high, string courses, gargoyles, and a battlemented parapet. The south wall contains a 4-centred arched doorway with double order ovolo mouldings above which is a plaque recording the date and details of the rebuilding. The upper stage features a clockface below a small 2-light 15th-century traceried pointed arched window under a label with stone baffles, now much eroded. The east side has a single and a 2-light 16th-century flat-headed window, both unlabelled, while the west face has similar single-light windows. The tower is crowned by a small timber turret with a lead cupola and weathervane, probably of 1705. A plain 4-centred arched doorway provides access into the nave, probably recut.

Inside, the chancel is predominantly 19th-century in character except for the east window. A hollow chamfered arch, probably 15th century, connects the chancel to the organ chamber, and a squint opens to the south aisle. A carved oak panel reredos depicting Christ in the Garden, dated 1889, stands at the east end. Between the nave and south aisle (St Barbara's Chapel) is a triple arcade: the centre arch is probably 15th century whilst the smaller flanking arches date to around 1880. Fragments of 15th-century stained glass survive in the east window of this aisle, with an unexplained 15th-century corbel bracket nearby in the wall. The nave has a 19th-century chancel arch but features an arcade into the north aisle of 13th-century style with no imposts to the columns. The screen between the north aisle and organ chamber may incorporate parts of a 15th-century screen.

The fittings are mostly 19th century, though the font probably dates to 1705 and shows Norman styling. Memorials include a large tablet to the Dalton family of Lattiford House in the organ chamber—the Daltons supplied several 18th-century rectors. Two memorials to the Watts family of Shanks House, dated 1729 and 1735 and carved with broken pediments, urns, and family arms, stand in the south aisle. A hatchment board of 1660 survives in the north aisle. The list of rectors begins in 1317, though little is known of the church's general history except that it was severely damaged in a storm of 1705, necessitating reroofing and reconstruction of the tower.