Church of St German of Auxerre

The Church of St German of Auxerre is a 19th-century church built in the Free Decorated style. It is constructed of pink-grey rock-faced Swelldon stone with bathstone dressings, and has slate roofs. The church comprises a five-bay nave without a clerestory but with tall aisles, a three-bay chancel with flying buttresses over the north and south chapels, a polygonal stair turret to the northwest, a vestry to the east, and a tall octagonal fleche with a steep slate roof and cusped belcote windows. The west front features two long two-light windows to the nave (the upper half only being glazed), a three-arched entrance with a central doorway and a statue above, blind arches to each side, and stepped buttresses and three-light aisle windows. An ashlar-faced polygonal stair turret is located to the northwest. The five-bay aisles have three-light windows and shallow buttresses, with a doorway in the west bay of the south aisle. The three-bay chancel is characterised by large three-light windows with flowing tracery and flying buttresses over low chapels with small windows. A stair turret is situated to the south. The east end showcases stepped gabled buttresses, a large tripartite window with flowing tracery, and a single-storey vestry below it.

The interior is described as elegant and spacious, with refined lines and a clever use of space. It is a hall church, featuring a tall nave and five-bay aisle arcades. The roofs are boarded and wagon-shaped, with stencilling, while the chancel roof has stone transverse arches on wall shafts. Aisle elevation windows are set within deep arches separated by piers. A full-height chancel arch is present, and a rood beam, designed by Farmer & Brindley based on Bodley’s designs and originally from St Paul, Lorrimor Street, London, is incorporated. Chancel side windows are similarly set within deep arches with ogee-headed doors leading to walkways above the arches to the north and south chapels (the north chapel of St Agnes, and the south Lady Chapel). A reredos dating from 1921-23, in a late medieval Netherlands style with gilded figures of saints, is a prominent feature, complemented by shutters added in 1926-27 in memory of the first vicar, Father Ives. The east window contains glass depicting Christ crucified, alongside 18 other figures created by Burlison & Grylls in 1900. The organ case, painted and gilded with a panelled balcony, was designed by Bodley in 1887. An octagonal wooden pulpit, also by Bodley & Hare, is present. The chapels to the north and south of the chancel have ribbed and vaulted stone roofs and wrought-iron screens to the aisle entrance arches. The north chapel contains glass by Burlison & Grylls, as well as a depiction of the Adoration of the Kings by Kempe from 1890. The south chapel features a pair of two-light windows with flowing tracery to the organ loft, with glass by Hugh Easton from 1954, positioned above the entrance. The west end has a tripartite doorway. The font, by Bodley from 1898, has a cover by Hare. Stations of the cross, also by Hare, were added in 1919.