Church Heritage Record 632106

West tower, nave with south porch and north aisle; chancel with north chapel.

The tower and chancel arch are fifteenth-century, and so was the external appearance of the nave and chancel (as Buckler's drawings show) until W. Slater restored the church in 1850 and replaced the south windows with lancets, and the east window with a geometrical one. The brick north aisle and chapel were added in 1532.

From the south, that is from the road, the church appears to have an unrestored west tower and a much restored nave, south porch and chancel. The north aisle, the architectural treasure of the church, is almost completely hidden. Buckler's drawings of 1831 are useful illustrations of the building before any Victorian restoration. They show that in outline nothing was changed, but that every window of the nave and chancel was replaced. Buckler shows a square-headed two-light Perpendicular window to the west of the porch, a similar one to the east and then a similar three light window further east again. These are now represented respectively by a single lancet, a group of three lancets and a single lancet, all in Bath stone with a roll-moulding outlining each. What appears to be a low-side window in Buckler's drawing has disappeared altogether. The porch has clearly been completely rebuilt so that its gable no longer stands well above the nave eaves, and again the Early English style is used for the outer arch and the small side windows, replacing Perpendicular features.

The chancel now has two pairs of lancets similar to those of the nave high in the south wall, where Buckler shows one two-light Perpendicular window with a square head close to the abutment with the nave. Otherwise he depicts only a priest's doorway (now completely vanished) near the middle of the wall. The three-light east window shown by Buckler, with cusped main lights and panel tracery in keeping with the other windows in the church, has been replaced with a rather vacuous three-light window with trefoil-headed lights, and a cinquefoil and two trefoils above.

The west tower is of three receding stages rising to an embattled parapet. This has been less harshly restored, but the rather plain bell-opening in the east face is a later replacement (Buckler shows a two-light opening of standard design like those in the other three walls) and a sundial lower down has been replaced by a clock face. Again, the tower has no buttresses. The west wall is pierced by a two-light window in the lowest stage, with cinquefoiled heads to the main lights, a pointed quatrefoil above, and a moulded reveal and hood, all of which seems to tally with Buckler's drawing. The north and south walls are blind and there is a plain plinth. The middle stage has a rectangular opening in the west and south faces, the latter partly convered by a circular clock face. The third stage has two-light bell-opening in each direction except the east with tracery which has been simplified since Buckler drew the church. The embattled parapet has a water spout on the north and south sides to drain water from the gutter. Both are carved as grotesque heads. Within the parapet is a short lead-covered Hertfordshire spike capped by a weathervane.

It is, however, the north aisle which is the most striking feature of the building. A brass inscription inside states that it was erected by George Canon, Lord of the Manor, in 1532, and it is almost entirely constructed of brick, with the exception of two windows and a doorway near the west end. It stands under its own gabled roof with rendered gables at each end. There is a moulded brick plinth and the north-east and north-west angles have diagonal buttresses. In the west wall, near the abutment with the tower, is a polygonal mass of brickwork resembling a stair turret, but apparently solid and, from its position, probably intended as a buttress to the arcade. The west window is of two lights, of stone (probably re-set from the north nave wall) with cinquefoiled heads to the main lights, panel tracery and a moulded hood.

In the north wall there are five windows, with a doorway set between the first and second from the west. The west window of this wall (also probably re- set) is of two cinquefoil-headed lights without tracery above, of stone under a brick label with square brick stops set diagonally. These stops appear to have faces, rather like the moon in profile, cut in the brick. Close to this is the doorway, placed here to serve the Hall, with a round arch having plain blocks at the impost and a plain keystone, the outer moulding following the arch but also outlining the square spandrels. Above is a moulded architrave. The doorway, which is wholly classical, is probably a seventeenth-century addition like the woodwork inside. Next comes a three-light window all of brick with plain mullions, no tracery, and a moulded reveal and moulded hood. A taller three-light window of roughly similar pattern follows, and is the tallest in the wall ; it also is the only one without a hood-mould or label. Finally, the two easternmost windows light the north chapel, and are of similar design with hollow-moulded reveals and moulded hoods. In the case of the western window, the left-hand stop is a re-used stone carving of a grotesque head. The east window of the chapel is like the two eastern-most windows in the north wall, of three lights, but with the addition of panel tracery, and with a fleur-de-lys and a floret in the stops of the hood-mould.

The south doorway into the nave is, like all the nave and chancel architectural features, entirely nineteenth-century, and so is the oak door. The only features inside the nave or chancel to remain from the previous building are the chancel arch and the tower arch. The former has an outer moulded order running down to the floor and an inner one carried on semi-circular responds with semi-octagonal moulded capitals and bases. The tower arch has two chamfered orders, the outer running down to the floor and the inner carried on semi-octagonal responds with moulded bases and capitals. The floor is paved with red and buff tiles set lozenge-wise, and the roof has arch-braces to the collars, all nineteenth-century.

On the north side of the nave is a three-bay arcade of brick opening into the aisle. The two-centred arches of three chamfered orders are carried on clustered brick pillars of four octagonal shafts with hollows between, and bell-shaped capitals. The bricks are colour washed red with tuck pointing to represent narrow joints. The aisle itself has a modern floor of red tiles, having formerly been mostly filled with box pews allowing only a narrow passage on the north side. The font now stands in the middle of the aisle and near it is a square stone set in the floor inscribed "Ad Ostium Monumentum" which presumably marks the entrance to the burial vault below. The panelling from the box pews remains between the pillars of the arcade and the rest has been re-arranged as a dado round the north and west walls. The walls above this are plastered and the coved roof, which is also plastered and whitened, may conceal a roof of the same date as the aisle.

At the east end of the aisle only a screen marks the north chancel chapel, since the floor and ceiling continue uninterrupted. An arch of brick communicates between the chapel and the chancel, of more refined pattern than the north arcade, with rich mouldings rather than mere chamfers. Its imposts, however, are much plainer (and may have been renewed). The arch is closed by a screen in the same style as that towards the north aisle. The chapel is the burial place of the various families which have been lords of the manor, and there are three fine wall monuments and several good black ledger slabs (others may be concealed by the blue carpet). The small window in the south-west canted wall suggests the remains of a rood stair within.

The chancel is paved with red and black nineteenth-century tiles at the same level as the nave, and there are two ledger slabs where the choirstalls used to stand. Otherwise there is only one step at the communionrails and the roof, like that of the nave, has arch-braced collars and is all nineteenth-century.