Church Heritage Record 621668

West tower and spire, three-bay aisleless nave with south porch and chancel.

The church was designed by W.A. Nicholson of Lincoln and was built at the expense of the vicar, the Revd. G.A. Chaplin, in 1837 or 1840. The name of G.R. Willoughby of Louth is also connected with it, and it is interesting to note in this connection that both are named as joint architects at Biscathorpe not far away (of much the same date). Nicholson also designed the church at Raithby (1839) and probably Oxcombe (1842). All are in a brick and cement Perpendicular style modelled on Louth, but at Wragby in 1838 Nicholson built a typical "Commissioners Church" with lancet windows and thin buttresses and in 1842 at Brigg a church of reasonable archaeological correctness. He also built workhouses at Brigg and Lincoln and a Corn Exchange at the latter. He devised the romantic castellated mansion of Bayons for Charles Tennyson in 1836-42 and laid out the village of Blankney.

The first impression of the church from a distance is that it is a smaller edition of Louth, and this was evidently the architect's intention. Only as one comes closer does it become apparent on what a small scale (compared with Louth) it was designed. In outline, however, the spire is clearly copied from its majestic neighbour. It has the same tall pinnacles at the corners, flying buttresses and crockets up the edges, but here the comparison ends. Haugham tower is of three stages, first a tall one with two-light west window with panel tracery and then a shallow one which houses the clock, with a round window in the west wall cusped to make a trefoil and patches in the stucco (round on the north and square on the south) which may indicate where the clock faces once appeared. Although the works are still in the tower, the clock has no face now. The uppermost stage, which houses the bells, is as tall as the first and has two-light cinquefoiled windows in each face under crocketted ogee arches (that on the south almost completely missing). The stages are separated by stone moulded stringcourses and the angles have thin diagonal buttresses which terminate below the parapet. The parapet is of stone with pierced castellations and the angles have tall octagonal pinnacles with panelled sides and crocketted caps. These are attached to the recessed spire by lacy flying buttresses modelled on Louth. At the apex of the slender spire is a large weathercock.

The body of the church is in the same brick and stucco Perpendicular style. The nave is of three bays, each divided from the next by thin buttresses rising into pinnacles set at forty-five degrees. Behind them runs a continuous moulding and an embattled parapet. The windows in each bay are of two cinquefoil-headed lights with moulded hoods. The porch is in the western bay of the south side and has a plain chamfered arch to the outer doorway under a moulded hood. At the corners are angle buttresses rising into pinnacles (decorated, oddly and anachronistically with cherub's heads) and a sloping parapet along the gable is decorated with cusped triangles. At the apex is an octagonal pinnacle terminating in a foliate cross at the top and a foliate corble at the foot. The chancel is provided with a three-light east window with panel tracery and has single cinquefoiled lights in the middle of the north and south walls. It has a low pitched roof and parapets like those of the nave. The stone plinth may possibly survive from the earlier church.

The interior of the church is a period piece which, in view of the fact that it has survived since 1840 virtually without alteration, is of considerable interest. Architecturally it is simple. The floor is paved with stone and the walls are plastered and painted pale yellow with details painted white. The windows have moulded hoods and foliate stops which seem to be of stucco. At the west end a small four centred doorway opens into the tower space and between this and the main door on the south stands the font. Above the west doorway is the tablet in memory of The Revd. George Chaplin which records his building of the church. The roof is constructed in three bays corresponding to the external division of the walls, with braced tie-beams and panel tracery in the space between these and the plaster ceiling. The corbels are apparently non-structural stucco confections decorated with bunches of leaves. The chancel arch is also four-centred and above it is a small Royal Arms. The chancel floor is also paved with stone, finely cut ashlar blocks, with one step at the iron rails. The three windows contain contemporary stained glass of great interest.