Church Heritage Record 634315

West tower, 4-bay nave; chancel; north and south transepts, the north of two bays and incorporating a vestry, with boiler house beneath.

Nave 13m (40 feet) x 6m (18.5 feet).

Crichel is mentioned in Domesday, but Long Crichel does not appear till the early 13th century, which may be the date of origin of this church. All that remains of the medieval building above ground is the 15th-century west tower, the rest of the church was rebuilt by an unknown architect after a devastating fire in 1853. The monumental brass in the chance and the font are the other most obvious survivals from the medieval church, an oak chest in the vestry would appear to be post-medieval in date.  The building is virtually unchanged since the restoration.

Clearly the west end of the building and the entire site are of archaeological potential concerning the development of the church and churchyard.  The immediate  surrounding area is also crammed full of Prehistoric and Roman sites and monuments, particularly tumuli.

The west tower is of two stages which would appear to be substantially late medieval, embattled with corner pinnacles and gargoyles. The parapet and pinnacles are very eroded. The belfry stage has two-light pointed windows with returned labels. It has diagonal buttresses at the west end and square set buttresses to the east, all of two weatherings. A recessed 19th-century south doorway with a pointed head and continuous mouldings under a projecting canopy functions as an entrance porch. The tower stands on a stepped plinth, and there is a string course just above this.

The walls of the nave have three 2-light rectangular windows with panel tracery separated by buttresses of two weatherings, 15th-century in style to match the tower. At eaves’ height is a carved corbel table, with heads and floral designs. The east nave gable is pierced by a trefoil opening above the lower chancel. 

The south transept has a brattished parapet. The south window is of two lights under a 4-centred head and a label with carved stops. The west wall is pierced by a single-light, square-headed window, the east wall by a doorway with again a 4-centred head. The longer north transept of two bays is different in character, with two lancets under returned labels in the east and west walls. The north wall is has a pointed, traceried window, blind below the springing line and with a Star of David design in the head.

The chancel is apsidal and of ashlar throughout, with an openwork parapet. Crocketted pinnacles rise from buttresses of two weatherings. The walls are pierced by traceried single light windows under labels with carved stops.

The interior retains in form and atmosphere something of the Georgian style surviving in this early Victorian Gothic design, particularly the long aisleless nave with its regular fenestration. The furnishings and fittings are of good quality, and a good deal of money was clearly spent on the restoration. A corona lucis is suspended from the flat painted ceiling in the internal porch under the tower. There is a crocketed ogee-headed niche in the east bay of the north nave wall, with the Ark carved in relief above a projecting bowl, presumably a stoup.  

The nave is painted light yellow, details picked out in white. It has a gabled panelled ceiling, painted blue with white beams with a brattished wall-plate. The ceiling seems likely to have been inserted later, as it blocks off the trefoil opening in the east nave gable. The nave is fully pewed. The nave floor is of quarry tiles, with encaustic tiles in the crossing, transepts and chancel.

The chancel arch is of two orders of continuous mouldings, embellished with fleurons, as are the arches to the transepts. There are choir stalls within the arch to the north transept, integral with a wooden brattished screen which defines the vestry in the north bay behind it, accessible through a plain doorway.  A harmonium stands in the south transept, which has an ornate panelled ceiling, gilded between scrolling beams.  There is a marble grave slab with floriate cross, 19th-century, with an inset medieval brass on the north side of the sanctuary.