Church Heritage Record 638052

Single-cell building with a south west porch and a bell turret on the roof ridge at the west end.

The church is very difficult to date, but the present fabric appears to be essentially of early fourteenth century date. The present structure represents the eastern part of the nave and the chancel of what was once a much larger church (adding to the likelihood that there was once a larger settlement here than exists today). In 1794 there was a petition to demolish the west end and rebuild. It is believed that the demoltiion of the west end included the removal of a fine tower and of north and south aisles, some of whose windows were re-used in the remaining walls, which explains the unusual series of four differing windows in the south wall. The west wall was rebuilt twenty-one feet further east. The porch was added in 1830 and the church was restored in 1890, when a new bell -cote was erected over the west end of the roof-ridge.

Cotham church is a building with several features of interest. The south wall is divided into five bays by buttresses of uniform profile, the second from the west only being slightly broader than the others. Above the second from the east is a square stone sundial with an iron gnom dated 1643. The western bay has a simple double-chamfered doorway sheltered by a much later porch. This has rubble flanking walls but a south front faced with smooth ashlar. The outer doorway is round-headed with a moulded surround and the wall rises to a moulded cornice which bears no relation to the roof behind. Above the doorway is a rectangular stone with the date 1830.

The remaining bays in the south wall, four in number, each have a window of strikingly different design, set in the wall like a pattern-book. The second bay from the west has a three- light Perpendicular window with cinquefoil-headed lights under a triangular head outlined by a moulded hood. The third bay has a three-light Deocrated window with reticulated tracery and moulded jambs and arch. The next bay has a broad four - light Perpendicular window with four short cinquefoiled-headed lights and panel tracery, all within a moulded hood. The last bay has a three-light Decorated window with trefoil-headed lights, the outer pair round- headed and the middle one ogee-headed and leading into tracery of two incurving mouchettes and a pointed quatrefoil.

The north wall is similarly divided into five bays by buttresses but these are less evenly spaced and those towards the east end are more bulky. The three eastern bays are blind but the two western bays have three - light windows of similar design to that in the bay next to the porch an the south wall. Most of this wall is covered by rendering.

The west wall is entirely faced with late eighteenth-century ashlar of squared blocks, and has a large buttress near each corner. In the gable is re- set a small two-light Perpendicular window with a triangular head and cinquefoiled lights. The apex of the gable rises to become the western base of the square bell -cote which has a pyramidal tiled roof. All the louvres have been removed and these, together with the bell-frame and headstocks, are lying in a heap at the base of the wall. The two bells are understood to be stored at Newark parish church.

The east wall has large buttresses at the angles similar to those on the west wall, and is partly refaced with ashlar (and , to the north of the east window, has old window- sills built horizontally into the masonry). The east window itself is a three- light design which looks entirely nineteenth- century in date. The three lights are trefoil-headed and there are three trefoils in a circle for tracery. The hood is simply moulded.

The walls are plastered and the windows have plain reveals. The north wall in particular has a pronounced batter which may not be entirely intentional. The floor is paved with stone in the central alley and there are timber platforms where the pews used to stand (many) furnishings have been removed) . The roof is of six bays with wall posts, collars, king-posts and struts. There are also straight wind-braces to the purlins. The two western bays have additional tie-beams to support the bell-cote. The plain stone corbels appear to be of 1794 , since four more at the west end, now unused, seem to have supported the bell-cote preceding the present one (executed in 1890).