Church Heritage Record 621081

Nave and chancel in one, with aisles with twin transept-like projections, N and S porches, and bell turret.

Nave 62 x 53 feet, including aisles; chancel 32 x 21 feet.

No archaeological finds have been reported in the immediate vicinity of the church. No earlier building is known to have existed on the site. There are no known burials on the site. Three large sycamore trees on the W boundary, but no known TPOs.

The church is said to have been built to service the nearby barracks on Burton Road. The first barracks on Burton Road were constructed in 1857; they now house the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. In 1890 (also the time of the church’s construction) new barracks were built to the north of the existing barracks on Burton Road. These new barracks became the home of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment. They were renamed the ‘Sobraon Barracks’ after the Battle of Sobraon, which took place in the first Anglo-Sikh War.

The ridge-line of the nave and chancel is of one height. To N and S are lower lean-to aisles to N and S, from which emerge twin-gabled, transept-like projections; also projecting to the S, a vestry and boiler-house at the E end, and a porch to the W. To the NW, between the nave wall and N aisle, is a small porch. Both porches have round-arched doors.

Except for those to the W, all the church windows are simple lancets. On the N side, from the W, there are four lancets to the aisle, then a pair of lancets in each of the transept-like projections to the aisles, then a lancet to the chancel. There are three lancets in the E end, and above, at the apex of the gable, a quatrefoil in a roundel. On the S side, there is a lancet to the chancel. Between the chancel and the vestry is a low boiler house with one square-topped window and a camber-arched doorway to the E, and two square-topped louvred window openings to the S. The projecting vestry has three square-topped windows on the E façade, a pair of lancets to the S, and a camber-arched doorway to the W. Moving W, there is a single lancet, then the ‘transepts’, each of which has a pair of lancets – the easternmost pair have been cut in half to accommodate a square-topped double door. Beyond the transepts, three further lancets, and then the S porch. The W windows have simple geometric tracery, two lancets with a trefoil above. Between these windows is a buttress, weathered, with a gablet half-way up and a date stone at low level. Above the windows, in the centre of the gable, is a trefoil within a roundel.

The apices of the gable of the west façade and the gables of the ‘transepts’, have rock-cut stone and ashlar laid in a checkerboard pattern. All the gables are coped and topped with a trefoil. A small bell-cote, recorded in PM 895 as standing above the west gable, has been removed. Projecting from the nave roof between the vestry and the transepts to the S is a red-brick chimney stack.

The interior of the church has been greatly affected by subdivision. The space is divided vertically at the chancel arch (the dividing wall features a large sliding door with a window above) and at the westernmost bay of the nave, leading to a sequence of spaces from west to east of small hall, large hall, and chancel. The nave has also been divided from the ‘transepts’ along the line of the arcade pillars. On the south side, the sequence of spaces from west to east is: entrance porch, offices, second entrance porch, vestry, store room, boiler house; and on the north side: entrance porch (not used), kitchen, meeting room, lavatories. Except for the chancel, the building has also been subdivided horizontally by a suspended ceiling, installed to aid lighting and heating the space, which regrettably obscures an attractive timber roof structure.

The arcade pillars are now embedded in dividing walls. They consist of square wooden posts with chamfered corners supporting braces which (PM 895 records) rise to tie beams running down the length of the church and large braces which rise to tie-beams across the span of the nave. The roof structure is still visible in the chancel, showing ogee windbraces in each bay. The areas between the purlins are panelled with matchboarding. The roof structure in the chancel features queen posts with pendants that give an effect almost like a hammer-beam to each bay. In the N chancel wall is a stone aumbry under a gablet topped with a trefoil. In the chancel walls to N and S are pointed-arched recesses; that to the S holds a wooden screen with a pierced cornice and a doorway, with blind Gothic tracery, leading to a corridor giving onto the vestry and – via another screen containing historic woodwork – the south-east entrance porch.

Some quarry tiles remain in the nave and south-west entrance porch, and it is possible that stone flags remain under the carpet in the chancel. A final feature worthy of note – though not an attractive one – is the large cast iron heating duct that cuts through the vestry at an angle of 45° to connect the boiler to the chimney.

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All of the church’s original furnishings have been removed and the building’s present contents are the property of the Orthodox Church or the Lincoln Diocesan Deaf Association. The building contains no organ, bells, or stained glass.