Parish Church of St Stephen

Parish Church of St Stephen

This is a Grade I listed parish church of considerable architectural and historical importance. The building comprises a nave and chancel under one roofline, a separately roofed south aisle and Lady Chapel, a narrow lean-to north aisle and chapel, a south porch, and a west tower. It is constructed from coursed sandstone rubble with stone tile roofs featuring raised ashlar copings and apex crosses.

The eastern end of the chancel was rebuilt in 1882, and much of the window tracery was remade during the 19th century. The chancel north wall contains an 1854 window of double lancet form, while the south wall has a double lancet of similar date. The west window of the south aisle displays reticulated tracery. Other windows are of later Perpendicular style, those in the south aisle dating from the 16th century with cambered heads over cinquefoil lights. A blocked window marks the east end of the Lady Chapel.

The south porch is gabled with a deeply moulded Perpendicular arch. The apex contains niches with 19th-century sculptures depicting Christ, Mary, and St Stephen holding the stones of his martyrdom. A pointed door to the south leads into the Lady Chapel.

The west tower is a broad three-stage structure dating from the early 15th century. It features diagonal buttresses, battlements, and loopholes. A north-east stair turret is crowned with a beacon turret.

The churchyard contains numerous chest tombs and a lychgate of 1882 in Tudor style.

Interior

The interior is unusually fine and well-furnished with late medieval features. The nave arcades contain four bays with tall octagonal piers bearing moulded capitals on square bases and double chamfered arches. The chancel arcades are similar but flatter, comprising two bays. There is no chancel arch, but a wide Lady Chapel arch opens from the main space.

The earliest roof is in the north aisle, divided into panels with richly moulded ribs and chamfered rafter infilling. The main ribs are jointed into curved braces incorporated into a coved, moulded bressummer piece at wallplate level. The nave and south aisle roofs have very flat-arched profiles with plain ribbed panels, moulded tie beams, and numerous bosses decorated with armorial and foliage motifs, including Tudor Roses. The chancel roof was rebuilt in 1882 over new corbels and incorporates a new arch-braced truss marking the nave division.

A fine late 15th-century screen of Gloucestershire type extends across the nave and aisles. It was repaired in the 19th century when its paint and gilding were removed. The nave section spans eight bays with shafted muntins extending to the floor. The Tudor-arch heads feature foliated and cusped tracery, with lower sections displaying two panels per bay containing blind tracery and a top frieze of quatrefoil openwork between two quatrefoil bands. A double canopy has mortices for a loft parapet. The west side features tierceron vaulting springing from the muntin capitals. The canopy bressummer frieze displays top and drop cresting and two bands of stylized vine scroll. The east side of the canopy is coved with carved spandrel ornament. There are some irregularities: the Lady Chapel canopy is vaulted on both sides, and the north aisle has slightly different tracery. Sixteenth-century parclose screens of Welsh pattern feature muntins finishing at rail height, panelled dados with blind tracery, narrow lights with cusped tracery under flat heads, and crested friezes with vine scroll.

Fifteenth-century stalls with traceried fronts and poppy finials line the main and parclose screens. One stall retains its original book chain. An outstanding early 16th-century organ case incorporates Gothic and Renaissance details and is nationally important as the earliest surviving in the British Isles, though not in its original form. It was restored and rebuilt in 1872 when the present Walker organ was installed. The pipes are arranged in five compartments, three projecting and two flat sections containing two tiers of smaller pipes divided by a richly carved panel with a central Tudor Rose. All have elaborate, freely carved, traceried pipe shades. Above is a deep brattishing of pinnacles and semi-circles topped with grotesque beasts. Lower sections have linenfold panelling, some pieces wrongly reset during the restoration.

The north aisle contains an Easter sepulchure (or possibly tomb niche) with a moulded four-centred arch. Trefoil-headed piscinas mark the positions of five pre-Reformation altars. A monolithic pre-Norman font, carved from a local doleritic erratic boulder, has a massive polished bowl set on four thick legs. Tiles by William Godwin of Lugwardine include some medieval tiles reset in the north aisle and at the entrance to the Lady Chapel. The pulpit, reredos, and altar-rails are by Preedy in Gothic style. The east window glass is by John Hardman of Birmingham. The east end of the north aisle contains a fragment of late 15th-century glass depicting St Catherine and her wheel. The north aisle chapel houses an 18th-century Italian painting of Moses and Aaron and a large 17th-century panelled chest. Some raised and fielded panelling appears in the north aisle.

Three hatchments decorate the west wall, along with 19th-century tablets to the Lewis family. Blocking the Lady Chapel east window is a large pyramidal monument with a seated woman and portrait medallion to Thomas Lewis (died 1777). On the south wall of the chancel is a monument to his wife Ann (died 1785), depicting a mourning woman on a pyramidal slab flanked by putti. A flat sarcophagus on corbels commemorates John Lewis (died 1797) by Flaxman. In front of the chancel entrance lies a floor tablet with a foliated cross, possibly 13th century.

The church contains six bells, cast in 1724 by Rudhall of Gloucester.