Church of St. Jeffrey and St. Oswald

Church of St. Jeffrey and St. Oswald

This is a medieval church comprising a nave and chancel with a north aisle, passage-squint and vestry. There are double south chapels and a porch. The building was heavily restored in 1868.

The masonry is of hammer-dressed sandstone with much ribbon-pointing. The north elevation and west elevation of the aisle are rendered. The 19th-century masonry to the north of the church is of poorer stone. Larger stones have been selected for the quoins of the porch. The roof is slate with a grey tile ridge, with the nave and chancel under one roof. Coped gables with finial crosses stand over the chancel and porch.

At the west end stands a late medieval three-storey tower of uncoursed sandstone with selected larger stones at the quoins, also ribbon-pointed. A corbel table supports a parapet with crenellations. All four faces have belfry lights with clock-faces. There is a blocked opening to the storey beneath the belfry. The tower tapers somewhat and at the foot is battered and rendered. A stairs turret is positioned at the north-east of the tower, reducing slightly at mid-height, lacking crenellations and lit by slit windows.

The windows are 19th-century grouped lancets, except those to the vestry and passage squint. Forest of Dean stone has been used for the new windows of the restoration. Where not beneath eaves, the windows have relieving arches. The archway to the porch is a 13th or 14th-century two-order arch with a 19th-century relieving arch above. The original arch is wide and formed of two stones. A 19th-century external doorway to the vestry has limestone dressings. A stone at the junction of the copings of the two south chapels carried the carved date 1868.

Interior

The interior displays rich character in a ponderous architectural restoration style with good proportions, a large organ and a chancel well-filled with good-quality monuments. On the axis of the church are the tower base, nave and chancel. Two small chapels lie to the south, the eastern one now occupied by the organ. The north aisle functions with the nave but has a north return as a quasi-transept. From the aisle a large passage-squint connects to the chancel, with a small vestry to its east. The two south chapels, porch and tower base are vaulted; otherwise the church has 19th-century roofs.

The nave has braced collar-beam trusses with quatrefoil piercings and a two-light south window. The pulpit is positioned at the left, with three blocks of pews occupying the nave and north aisle. The arcade on the left is accurately copied from Castlemartin Church, with two-order arches. The inner order bears on very heavy abaci on thin round columns with conical caps, though with plain corbels replacing the face-corbels which at Castlemartin carry the outer order of the arches. The base of the tower is a steep pointed stone vault opening fully into the nave apart from a low screen. The north aisle roof is of common rafters with collars, turning 90 degrees to form a north gable. The passage squint contains a small north window with 20th-century stained glass representing St. Christopher and St. Francis.

The chancel roof is of common rafters with collars and arch braces, giving a barrel-vault effect contrasting with the nave roof. The floor is of black and red quarry tiles. There is a step at the chancel arch and two to the sanctuary. Pine communion rails with a double gate feature trefoil-pierced decorative stiffeners beneath. The altar stands forward from a carved limestone reredos added subsequently to the main 1868 restoration, in Gothic detailing with a central shelf and aedicule for the cross with cinquefoil head, polished coloured marble colonnettes and flanking buttresses. The east window contains deteriorating stained glass with the inscription concealed by the reredos. To the south are a pair of lancets. The organ, occupying the east of the two south chapels, is by Peter Conacher of Huddersfield, dated 1908.

The porch is vaulted with a diagonally-boarded inner door and a stoup recess at the right. Benches stand at the east and west.

The font is a 12th-century square bowl, scalloped beneath, on a short round pillar with a moulded base and square pedestal.

Monuments

The monuments are predominantly of the Allen family and dominate the interior. Many were re-fixed from the pre-restoration building. These include a monument to John Bartlett Allen, died 1803, and Elizabeth, died 1790, at the north of the chancel, executed in sarcophagus style of white marble against black with achievement by William Williams, mason, of St Florence. A monument to Gertrude, wife of J. S. Allen, died 1825, also at the north of the chancel, is framed in Regency style with an urn at top, by Henry Wood of Bristol. To the south of the chancel are a monument to J. H. Allen JP MP, died 1843, with eulogy in a Gothic surround in high relief, and to S. P. Allen, died 1861, in a simpler Gothic style.

In the nave is a memorial in the form of a draped urn and plaque to Penelope Keates, died 1868, and William Keates, deputy inspector of hospitals at Dacca, died 1869.

Fixed to the east wall of the porch is an 8th or 9th-century incised stone, 1 metre in length by 25 centimetres wide, with a four-arm cross within a circle, the downward arm slightly extended. This was found in the porch floor in 1915.