Church Heritage Record 613030

Aisled nave, apsidal chancel, choir and clergy vestries and south porch.

Nave and aisles c 24m (79ft) x 18m (59ft)

The church was built in 1866 to designs by T C Ebdy. The north aisle was added in 1888 by Oliver and Leeson at the same time as a parish room extending to the south of the chancel (now utilised as the organ chamber). The south aisle was added by the same architects in 1897.

The church is located on the rise of the church yard but has no vertical emphasis of its own. The nave is tall with low leaning aisles to the north and south. The chancel roof is slightly lower than the nave and a gable has been created for the east face of the apse to allow for a larger east window. The chancel has vestries to the north and south, the former with a low pitched roof and the latter with a taller pitch and the look of a transept.

The fenestration varies with examples of plate tracery and prevalence of paired lancets. The west elevation has a large rose window over three thin single lancets. Short buttresses divide the aisles from the nave and each of the aisles has pointed arched windows containing two lancets and a small vesica tracery light. The small bell is hung in a frame at the top of the gable which is surmounted by a cross finial.

The north aisle has five bays of equal paired lancets. The north elevation of the vestry has a pair of lancets, taller than the aisle and a small roundel above. A further smaller lancet is positioned to the east of the gable and a shouldered door to the west. The east side of the vestry has another small lancet in the lower right corner and a door to the left leading to the boiler house.

The chancel has three faces, the outer two each with a single lancet and sexfoil over and the central with a three light stepped lancet window and quatrefoils and sexfoil over. All the windows have hoodmoulds and square stops and each face is divided from the next by diagonal buttresses with two offsets.

Moving to the south elevation, a transept style extension was added in 1888 and this has a taller pitch than the corresponding vestry on the north face and extends more prominently. There is a small shouldered external door next to the chancel in the east wall with four steps to it. The south elevation has a tall paired lancet window with a quatrefoil roundel above.

Four bays of the south aisle are visible and these echo the lancet style. The fifth bay to the west is occupied by the porch which has a separate pitched roof cutting slightly into the aisle roof. The sides of the porch have large trefoil openings contained in rounded triangles and low wide buttresses. The arch to the doorway is more decorative than any other detailing on the exterior of the church and has paired columns with foliate detail on the capitals and carved head stops to the hood.

Moving inside, the church is pewed with simple Victorian panel backed benches except for the south aisle which is set with round tables and chairs. There is a stark difference in the north and south arcades. The north has relatively thin columns supporting wide square capitals with elaborate carvings, the arches are austere and finish against the chancel wall with two small columns. The south arcade is far more graceful, with plain octagonal columns blending into the chamfers of the arches without any capitals. The result is a more open airy aspect the south. The stonework of both arcades and the chancel arch is exposed.

The east end of the south aisle connects to the organ chamber with three stepped pointed arches decreasing in height to the south wall; the organ pipes are displayed within these and below the smallest arch is a shouldered doorway. Access to the vestry from the north aisle is through a pointed arched doorway.

The organ display pipes fill both north and south archways in the chancel and the organ casing itself reaches to full height in the ‘transept’; the roof in this room has a double scissor-truss. The nave roof king posts, tie beams and arch braces. The flooring in the church is mostly carpeted in red although there is a tiled floor in the chancel.