Church Heritage Record 638117

West tower, nave with north and south aisles and clerestory and south porch; chancel.

Although a church was mentioned in Domesday Book, the lower part of the tower is the earliest part of the present building, and is Transitional in character. The upper part of the tower and the nave arcades are Early English and the clerestory is fourteenth century. The chancel was rebuilt in 1764, at which time a south burial aisle (said to belong to the Duke of Kingston) was taken down and the chancel was shortened by two-thirds "to keep the church more warm and healthy". J.L. Pearson produced plans for The Revd. Charles Nevile to rebuild the chancel in 1857, but nothing was done until 1890, when the chancel was rebuilt by another architect, possibly using Pearson's plans. The south porch, which is Perpendicular in origin, was rebuilt in 1912.

The tower is a substantial square structure of three stages, of which the uppermost is distinguished externally by a moulded stringcourse but the other two are undivided. The lowest two stages are blind to north and south but in the west face there is a pointed chamfered doorway with a small lancet light above it, both opening into the tower space. There are plain angle buttresses at the corners which die into the walls after one off-set. The uppermost stage, which is not tall, has a two-light bell-opening in each face, with a primitive shaft forming the mullion and either a circle or a lozenge above. There is no parapet, and the tiled pyramid roof oversails the walls. Its apex is capped by an iron weathervane.

The nave is slightly wider than the tower, and the clerestory has three windows in each wall, all quite small (there is not much headroom) and of two trefoil-headed ogee lights with a pointed quatrefoil between. All have a moulded hood which returns at each end. The rake of the old nave roof, which came at a steeper pitch down to lower eaves, may be seen on the east gable above the chancel roof.

Although of differing widths, the aisles seem to belong to roughly the same date as each other. Each is of four bays, and is of the late Decorated style with strong Perpendicular features, which is so characteristic of Nottinghamshire. The four windows in the north and south walls are square-headed with moulded labels. The main lights are ogee-headed with trefoil cusping and above them are trefoiled circles with pointed lower lobes. There are gabled buttresses with fleur-de-lys finials to mark the bays and the windows stand above a high chamfered plinth with a bold moulding of ogee profile which enfolds the buttresses. The buttresses are paired at the angles. The windows which do not conform are those in the east and west walls-the north aisle has two-centred window arch at each end with tracery of reticulated type made up of the foiled circle with a pointed base which is characteristic of this church; the west window of the south aisle is similar. The north aisle east window has a blocked centre light to provide a niche for a statue internally. The east wall of the south aisle has a blocked arch which formerly opened into the burial chapel. The upper parts of the aisle walls appear to have been altered since they have oversailing eaves rather than the expected parapets and there is a fluted Georgian rainwater head on the north aisle. The west bay of the north and south wall of each aisle is pierced by a doorway, both of similar design (that is, with a two-centred arch outlined by two hollow chamfers), and the south doorway (which is the main entrance to the church) is sheltered by a porch. It is vaulted in stone with four transverse chamfered and panelled ribs, each with a stop at the base; there are stone benches along the walls and set into the inner face of the east wall are the remains of a good mass-dial or sundial. Although the arch of the south doorway seems to have been renewed, the stops carved as heads look to be old. The outer arch of the porch has continuous mouldings along the jamb and a moulded hood with returned ends.

The nineteenth-century chancel copies some features of the aisles, especially in the buttresses which are under gablets with fleur-de-lys finials and in the window tracery, which in the side walls (two in the south and one in the western bay of the north) are of the three-light square-headed design like the north and south aisle windows. The buttresses, moreover, have ogee mouldings round the plinth and the stringcourse which encircles them rises on the east wall to form the sill of the east window. This is of three lights with elegant flowing tracery and a moulded hood terminating in stops carved as heads of a King and a wimpled lady.

The interior is unexpectedly spacious, with unusually tall quatrefoil pillars to the four-bay nave arcades with fillets up the edges and moulded quatrefoil bases and capitals. The bases stand on square plinths which taper into octagons at the top. The arches are double-chamfered without hoods and all the walls have been stripped of plaster. The nave roof is of low pitch, with chamfered and cambered tie-beams and chamfered ridge-pieces and purlins. The floor is paved with red quarry tiles and the pews stand on wooden platforms. The windows of the aisles have hollow chamfered surrounds terminating in pyramid stops at the foot, and the south aisle has in addition a chamfered stringcourse below the window sills. The blocked centre light of the east window of the north aisle has a bracket and canopy for a statue (the present modern statue is much too small). At each side there are semi-octagonal moulded brackets for statues and in the north wall there is a square aumbry with a rebate for a door which still retains the iron pins for the hinges. Further west there is a tomb-recess, and the aisle is thought to have been built as a chantry chapel by the Lisieux family in 1343. In the south aisle is a piscina with a sexfoil drain set up on a wooden pilaster, The east wall of this aisle has a blind arch which formerly opened. into a south chancel aisle. There is a damaged stoup near the south door.

The tower arch has a plainly chamfered arch and chamfered responds; the imposts are also only chamfered and indicate a date at the transition from Norman to Early English. The west doorway has a round rere-arch and the lancet window above had a deep splay as a result of the considerable thickness of the wall. The bases of the tower arch responds are provided with stone benches, on one of which lies a particularly good foliate cross-slab.

Like the rest of the church, the chancel walls are unplastered, and therefore show clearly the extent of the walls (presumably as reduced in 1764) before the 1890 extension. The floor is paved with nineteenth-century tiles and the altar stands on a tiled footpace. The north and south windows take their details from the aisle windows, and like them have a hollow moulded chamfer all round with pyramid stops. The east window, however, is shafted with a moulded arch. In the north wall there is a credence with a cusped arch and quatrefoils in the spandrels, obviously nineteenth-century. The south sanctuary window sill comes low to form a stone bench for sedilia. Built into the wall there are fragments of an Easter Sepulchre, and the east wall on each side of the stone reredos has stone arcading of three bays. The roof timbers are concealed by a pointed timber barrel vault divided into rectangular panels by moulded ribs and moulded purlins with foliate bosses. The chancel arch has two chamfered orders like the arcades, the outer continuous to the floor (though slightly narrower below the impost) and the inner resting on keeled shafts with semi-octagonal imposts. A dwarf stone wall marks the edge of the choir, which projects a little way into the nave.