Church Heritage Record id19592

West tower with north and south vestibules. Five bay nave with aisles divided off by tall Tuscan columns. Shallow chancel with vestries to the north.

Of the mediaeval church only the west tower remains and this is of two dates. The lower half is about 1200, the upper half Perpendicular (about 1400). The chancel and nave were rebuilt in 1749-50 at a cost of £1,440 to designs by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard. In 1846 the south side was revealed more clearly to the High Street and, being thought too plain, was accordingly embellished with roughly appropriate classical details. In 1883-4 a vestry was added on the north side, the galleries were removed from the nave and doors were made between the aisles of the nave and the west porches in unsuitable Romanesque style. The architect was S. Pountney Smith. At this time the foundations of two previous churches on the site were excavated, taking the history of a church on this spot back to Saxon times.

The tower, wider north and south than east and west, is divided into two main stages co-terminous with the two building dates and these are further sub-divided into two parts by less prominent string-courses. The lower two stages are of red stone, heavily weathered with an effect almost of rock-cut facing. In the west wall is a tall, rather gaping, lancet light without tracery which is embraced by massive stepped buttresses. This work appears to date from the early eighteenth century, for it is certainly not mediaeval. The stage above this is pierced only by a small opening in the west wall for the ringing chamber.

Above the medial stringcourse, the masonry of red stone gives way to finer ashlar of grey stone, refaced, if not rebuilt at a much later date. The string-course itself is marked by prominent gargoyles at the corners and virtually indecipherable carvings in the middle of each face. That on the south is certainly a figure and is traditionally said to represent St. Juliana.

The highest stage which contains the belfry has louvred openings in all four faces, those in the north, south and west walls having three lights with perpendicular tracery under a four-centred arch while the east window is plainer with only two lights. The cornice and battlements they now stand are nineteenth-century,the mediaeval parapet having been replaced by classical vases in the eighteenth-century. 

The nave and chancel were rebuilt in 1750 after the mediaeval church had reached such a poor state of repair that it had to be demolished. Indicative of the cheapness of the building is the re-use of some old stone in the lower parts of the walls and the choice of brick and stucco for the rest. It was indeed thought too plain in 1846 when the south side, which had been concealed by houses until 1789 (when they were demolished), was enriched with more elaborate classical details.

The north side of the nave still retains its simpler aspect, the only decoration on the brick walls being moulded stucco frames to the windows and a projecting cornice at parapet level.

Towards the east end of the north wall, the vestry projects, built of brick in 1883.

The east wall of the church is bounded by a narrow alley separating the shallow chancel from a large brick building to the east.

The wall of the nave shows that the church was designed for a gallery, the two rows of windows being divided on this front by a strong cornice which does not appear on the north. The other enrichments which were added in 1846 consist chiefly of a stuccoed surface to the lower half of the wall, the promotion of the upper cornice on the north side to a full entablature here and the division of the bay by pilastors, doubled at the corners for additional emphasis. Under each window were added console brackets and thick sills framing a variation of the key pattern.

Although the parts of the building north and south of the tower are eighteenth-century, the existence of arches in the walls of the tower shows that the mediaeval walls must have come as far west as west wall. All three arches are carried on semi-circular responds, the capitals and bases of which are nineteenth-century copies of Early English designs. They were opened out and restored in the 1883 reconstruction. The floor includes several good ledger slabs and the tower space has been arranged as a baptistery.

The mediaeval arch is framed on the cast side with a half-round arch of 1750 the thinness of which contrasts with the stout massiveness of the restored mediaeval structure. The church is light and wide, suffering rather from the loss of the galleries which must have articulated the large internal space more definitely. 

Marks on the walls and the columns show where the galleries were. The aisles are divided from the nave by rows of four columns each side. These are of the Tuscan order, on tall panelled plinths which presumably came level with the.tons of box pews. These are of stone, as indeed are the columns but the latter are painted cream like the walls. The capitals carry a continuous architrave which breaks forward above each pier, giving a Gibbsian look to the architecture .(cf. Saint Martin-in-the-Fields).

Compared with the arcades which are strong conceptions, the chancel arch and tower arch are nothing more than moulding, following the line of the arch, interrupted by tiny capitals and a keystone. High above the tower arch are two winged heads of puttio and above the chancel arch is a group of three. The coved roof of the nave is decorated with fleurons which apparently came from the roof of the Perpendicular predecessor of this building. The aisles have flat ceilings which are similarly decorated in this unusual way.

The east wall is a unity, although parts -of the reredos are later. The most important feature is the large three-light Venetian window filled with richly coloured glass in a pictorial style after Rubens.