Church Heritage Record 634450

Nave with north vestry, tower (forming also the porch) and transept; south chantry chapel; chancel.

There was apparently a Norman church on the site, and it appears that this was wholly rebuilt about the second quarter of the thirteenth century (remains of some Norman pilaster buttresses are recorded in 1853). The chancel is the earliest existing work, dating (with the exception of the east window) from the thirteenth century. The fourteenth century saw the rebuilding of the north wall (re-using the earlier lancets) and the provision of buttresses. The north transept also belongs to this time, although the east window seems to be an earlier one re-used, and the lower part of the adjoining tower and so vestry seem to follow from this. The upper stage of the tower is later in the same century. The south chancel chapel is the next stage of the building to survive, and dates from c.1280. The features of the nave now almost all date from the restoration of 1860 by T.H Wyatt, who rebuilt the west wall, inserting the former chancel east window in this position, and replacing it with one of his own design. He also renewed all the roofs throughout the church.

In addition to occupying an attractive position close to its manor house, the church at Boyton is a building of considerable historic and architectural distinction. In common with a minority of English parish churches, it is approached from the north, which from the plan of the building seems to have been the case at least since the fourteenth century, and from this direction it presents a most unusual massing of the various parts of the building.

Entrance to the church is by means of a porch in the ground floor of the tower entered by a wide Early English arch. The arch is of three orders, the innermost of two roll mouldings separated by a hollow moulding, the middle of dogtooth between two rolls and the outer a simple chamfer. The innermost is carried on triple attached shafts which now seem entirely nineteenth-century with moulded capitals and bases. The next order rests on chamfered responds and the outer chamfer continues down to terminate just above the plinth of the building. Obviously not originally built as a doowway, it is possible that this arch was once the chancel arch, especially since it is of the same date as the chancel walls and has evidently been cut down to fit its present position. 

To the right (west) of the doorway is the pent roof of the small vestry, with a single little ogee-headed lancet in the north wall and a chimney in the north-west angle (entirely rebuilt by Wyatt). The tower is externally of two stages (although internally of three) and the upper is later than the lower, somewhat set back above a sloped weathering. It is probably late fourteenth-century and has no buttresses but pairs of cinquefoil-headed lights with pointed quatrefoils above in three faces (west, north and east) and an embattled parapet without pinnacles and without gargoyles, simply drained by round holes in the moulding below the parapet.

Further east is the gable of a north transept containing a fine three-light window with reticulated tracery. The upper part, of chequered flint and stone, together with the parapet on the east face pierced with quatrefoils, seems to have been entirely rebuilt by Wyatt. In the east wall are two lancets, one with a plain splay like those in the chancel and the other considerably later with a hollow moulding, but of similar proportions and size.

The west wall of the nave has a doorway in the lower part which was obscured by stacks of tiles in March 1978 but apparently is late mediaeval in date with a square head and moulded label, the spandrels carved with lions passant which may be a reference to the Giffard Arms. The rest of the wall is faced with flint and stone chequers and dates from 1860, together with the ashlar angle buttresses with two off-sets. The present west window, of three lights with cusped heads and panel tracery and moulded hood with carved stops, was originally in the east wall of the chancel until Wyatt replaced it here.

The south chapel is supposed to have been founded either by Walter Gifford, Archbishop of York, who died Lord of the Manor of Boyton in 1279 or by his brother Godfrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester, who died Lord of the Manor in 1301, or by both jointly, for the resting place of their brother Alexander Giffard, the noted Crusader who followed Longespoe on the Sixth Crusade to the Holy Land as equerry and died in 1250. The architecture of the chapel is extremely fine and in at least one feature unique. This is the great west window, a roundel of immense size (12 feet in diameter overall) divided by moulded tracery into three segmental triangles, within each of which is a circle with quatrefoil cusping. In each of the three spandrels thus formed is a smaller circle containing a trefoil, and the whole design is contained within a continuous label. An interesting detail is that the three small circles are set within grooves and, until a recent restoration, could easily be revolved within their fixings.

The remainder of the chapel is equally distinguished architecturally, but rather more orthodox. It is rectangular, with a roof ridge running parallel to the nave, and the three outer walls stand above a tall moulded plinth which also encircles the angle buttresses at the southern corners of the chapel. The south wall has three lancet windows with moulded hoods and the upper parts of both east and west gables were rebuilt in 1860 when the roof was renewed. 

Although basically the earliest part of the building to survive, the chancel is now almost entirely the work of Wyatt's 1860 restoration. As far as buttresses go, it is externally of two bays, although there are three lancet lights in the north wall. The walls are entirely of flint and stone chequers but there is no plinth as in most of the other parts of the church. At the eastern corners are diagonal buttresses and there are further single buttresses at the mid points of the north and south walls. The east window, of three lancets, is entirely Wyatt's design and replaces the Perpendicular window now at the west end of the church. 

The porch in the base of the tower is entered. This is paved with stone flags amongst which is set a coffin slab used as a palimpsest for a brass in the thirteenth century. To the right a small door opens into the vestry. The doorway into the nave has two chamfered orders, the outer with a small stoup on the left. The chamfers are stopped near the floor by bold quarter-circular stops.

The relative darkness of the nave is in a way an important contrast with the lightness of the Giffard chapel which may be seen through an arcade on the south side. Most of the architectural character the nave is now of 1860, since the roof was renewed at this time and the lavish foliage on the stone corbels is one of the most immediately noticeable features. The roof has pronounced beams at each bay, the tie beams placed high up and carrying kingposts with curved struts themselves strengthened by arch braces. The wall surfaces are quite plain, and the windows stand within plain reveals. The floor is paved with stone flags incorporating several ledger slabs and the pews stand on timber platforms. The crossing space has been cleared of pews, a considerable improvement which also enhances the south chapel and the north transept. The arch to the transept, of two moulded orders, is identical in design but smaller in proportions to the chancel arch, with the moulding coming down to the floor rather than resting on attached shafts.

The chancel stands two steps above the nave, and a low stone wall provided by Wyatt has since been removed. In spite of his restoration, the south wall retains a fine series of three sedilia under trefoiled arches with shafts with moulded capitals and bases against the uprights. Although the seats step up towards the east the arches are level, and they are outlined by a continuous moulding with little leaf motifs carved at the intersection of one with the next. Further east, as a separate entity though of the same date, is the piscina, again with a trefoiled head outlined by a simple moulding with returned ends. The bowl has been sheared off level with the wall. Wyatt's group of three lancets in the east wall have trefoiled heads and stand within a large trefiled arch which unified the composition. The floor tiles also date from his time, as doos the roof with a double scissor brace to each rafter. 

The south chapel was built in the later part of the thirteenth century to house the tomb over the body of Alexander Giffard. There seems, however, some doubt whether the effigy now under the eastern of the two arches opening from the nave into the chapel (which must surely be his) is in its original position or not. The two-bay arcade is of unusual interest, with arches of two orders, the outer with the chamfer carried to the floor on the responds and the inner deeply moulded. These spring from clustered shafts against the middle pier and single shafts at each ond with very strking mould caps and bases. There are no moulded hoods either towards the nave or chapel.