Church Heritage Record 621593

2-bay nave, central tower, apsidal chancel, south transept/porch.

The oldest part of the church is the tower, placed between the nave and chancel and the subject of much academic controversy.  The earliest architectural details are plainly 11th century and post-Conquest, but the tall and slim dimensions and construction technique may indicate a Saxon foundation. 

The church may have originally consisted of a single cell containing chancel and nave with the tower at the west end, a well known pattern in Lincolnshire.  If this is correct, the old nave and chancel were converted into the chancel and a new aisled nave built to the west of the tower at some time in the early medieval period, probably in the 13th century.  This unusual arrangement (indeed unique in Lincolnshire) was perpetuated after the restoration of the church around the tower in 1861 by James Fowler of Louth (perhaps in order to re-use the foundations), with the addition of a south transept/porch.  The church is said to have been in a ruinous state beforehand.

The church is an interesting amalgam of Victorian Gothic and 10th/11th century Romanesque, both of high quality and combining to create an original and interesting vista.  Fowler’s version of the 13th century church around the 11th century tower is faithful to the original concept while remaining fresh, avoiding the impression of a slavish copy.  Details such as string-courses and roof-lines are cleverly employed to create a rhythmic and attractive building.  Internally, the church is a riot of Victoriana which begs comparison in such a small country church.

The dominating external feature is the central tower, with its three stages defined by plain chamfered drip-courses.  The lowest stage employs roughly coursed cobbles, which may support the theory that the tower has Saxon origins. There are simple double openings in each face of the belfry stage.  The central pillars, which are worryingly degraded (indeed the south pillar has been lost), are circular in section and have cushion capitals with a double-chamfered astragal.  Plain end-bedded imposts support the tightly arched paired heads, which are also in poor condition.  All these details indicate a date in the later part of the 11th century. 

The rest of the church is Early English in style, executed with clear lines and slender proportions.  The gables of the nave, chancel and south transept are all steeply pitched and of equal height, and reach to the lowest drip-course of the tower, thus accentuating the belfry openings without interfering with them.  The roofs have coping stones without kneelers, and the nave and chancel have decorated ridge tiles (now much eroded) and fine wrought iron gable crosses.  The aisle roofs are also steep, the narrow clearstorey is blank. 

There are gabled buttresses of two weatherings between the windows. The chancel has a string-course running around under the window cills at the height of the lower weathering, which continues around the porch/transept.

There is a single lancet in the south wall of the transept/porch above the fine pointed doorway, together an excellent composition framed by angle gabled buttresses.  A lower string-course runs around the porch as described above, and an upper string-course runs between the doorway and window at aisle eaves height.  Both the doorway and window have richly moulded heads and angle-shafts and a moulded hood with leaf stops; the doorway shafts have capitals with stiff-leaf decoration.  The plank door has good scrolling ironwork.

The other windows are all single-light pointed lancets, and all have very good quality stained glass in lead cames and iron frames.  There are two windows in each aisle and one in the east wall of the north aisle.  There are five in the chancel.  The west wall has four lancets and a vesica window above.  These windows are all plain externally, without hood-moulds. 

The windows are set in deep recesses with pointed heads in the thick walls, which are internally faced in red brick with bands of white limestone.  There is a row of small niches in the west wall under the windows. The west end of the south aisle is used as a baptistery.  The floors are laid with fine encaustic tiles in a geometric pattern, even on the font platform.

The narrow aisles are defined by two-bay arcades, supported by a pair of quatrefoil piers.

The eastern wall of the nave and aisles, that is the internal west wall of the tower, is indeed the least satisfactory and most enigmatic part of the building.  The arch leading through the tower is plastered over, concealing all detail; it has a plain three-centred arched head dying into the walls. The dating of this arch is central to the debate on the original role and location of the tower. The eastern arch is larger, but otherwise identical in profile; however it appears to have radial voussoirs (just about visible through layers of emulsion), indicating that it might be original 11th century work.

A pointed chamfered arch in the east wall of the south aisle gives access to the south transept/porch. 

The chancel has found fame through Sir John Betjeman’s comparison of it with a “Public loo”.  The reason for this is the extraordinary polychromatic richness of the apsidal chancel floor and walls, with extensive use of Minton tiles on the floors, and a dado with fleur-de-lys embossed tiles.  Above this is blind arcading in the Early English style carried right around the apse.  The shafts of the arcades are of white marble, the capitals richly carved with leaf, vine scroll and floral designs. The arcading frames white marble lozenges, mostly blank; those on the north wall are inscribed as monuments to members of the Haigh family, whose vault lies underneath.

There is a marble credence desk built into the north wall.  The nave and the tiny chancel are crammed with furniture dating to the 1861 restoration. There is a tiled strip with biblical texts running around the nave and chancel at wall plate height, and another across the single step up to the sanctuary. The church has waggon roofs throughout, with a plaster and lath ceiling which is in need of repair.