Church Heritage Record 621250

4-bay aisled nave, 3-bay chancel, west tower, south porch, north-east organ chamber.

Nave 18m (55 feet) x 13m (40 feet), chancel 10m (31 feet) x 5m (16 feet).

The village is surrounded by fields with traces of ridge-and-furrow medieval field systems, and the site as well as the church itself is of considerable archaeological potential.

The church was built in the late 12th century, from which period the Romanesque north doorway remains.  The south doorway was added shortly afterwards, perhaps in the early 13th century, from which time or a little later the porch and aisles appear to date.  The church was rebuilt in the 14th century, with a clearstorey added and new windows throughout, and probably an extended chancel.  The tower must have been added in the 15th century.  At some point after this, the tower arch was blocked off.

The church was restored twice in the 19th century, firstly in 1857-8 by M C Baily of Newark, with the help of a grant of £65 from ICBS. Baily appears to have re-opened and restored the tower arch and restored some of the windows, and may have re-roofed the nave. A more thorough restoration was performed in 1888 by C H Fowler, with the chancel given a new roof, floor, and east window. He also faced the clearstorey and porch in Ancaster stone. The organ chamber was added in 1900, and the chancel refurnished.

Due to the flat pitch of these roofs, the Perpendicular tower seems quite out of scale, towering over the building. It is of four stages defined by moulded string courses, and has angle buttresses with weatherings at each string-course continuing up to form the crocketed pinnacles, which rise above the crenellated parapet. There are fine dragon-head water-spouts at the corners, at the level of the string-course under the parapet. 

Below this the upper stage has twin transomed two–light belfry openings under a single broad ogee arch, with moulded hood-moulds to floral stops. The ogee finials continue upwards as corbels from which intermediate pinnacles rise, altogether a fluid and satisfying composition. The stage below is blank except for narrow lancets in the south and north walls, and a clock face on the east wall. The stage below this has a large Perpendicular three-light with uncusped tracery in the west wall; it has a hood-mould over, with plain stops. The north and south walls have tall cusped two lights under depressed four-centred hood-moulds, again with plain stops. There is a small west doorway with arched moulded head in the bottom stage, under a round arched hood-mould with plain stops.

The north doorway is the oldest part of the building. It is flanked by chamfered jambs and a pair of nook-shafts, the capitals with a row of nail-head, under a round arch with muscular Romanesque carving. The hood-mould has small dog-tooth with stops carved as heads, now much eroded. Inside this is big zig-zag enclosing above an order of triangles carved with faces, leaves or flowers and animal heads. Inside this around the soffit is chevron. The plank door has good scrolling ironwork.

The porch has again a very flatly pitched roof, surmounted by a carved finial cross. This work was almost certainly part of the 1888 restoration, in which the outer walls of the porch were partly faced in Ancaster stone. There are stubby buttresses and pronounced plinth mouldings on all sides, continued from the aisles.

The aisle windows are three-lights, the clearstorey two-lights, all typical simple early 14th century with panel tracery with delicate cusping.  The chancel has pointed lancets in the side walls with the exception of the eastern windows, which are two-lights with reticular tracery, while the east window itself is a triple stepped lancet. These windows date to the 1888 restoration. The east and west windows of the aisles date to the earlier restoration and have good stained glass of this period.  

The chancel walls are executed in ironstone rubble coursing, contrasting with the ashlar cladding elsewhere in the church. The roof has clearly been raised, leaving the lancets stranded low down in the side walls, while the 1888 eastern windows hover above. The east gable of the, again, low-pitched roof is coped and carries a carved finial cross. The roof is covered in slates. The diagonal buttresses with two steep weatherings are of ashlar and have clearly been added at some point. The chancel is otherwise without buttresses, in contrast to the nave, which has gabled buttresses with one weathering at each bay. 

Internally, the huge pointed tower arch with its crenellated capitals catches the eye, particularly as the low nave roof impinges on it. Within the space behind a low curtained oak screen is a much damaged 14th-century effigy of an unidentified lady. The space is otherwise unused and open right up to the floor of the belfry, which allows the nave to be lit by the large west window.

The nave arcades and the chancel arch are the most striking reminders of the 13th century phase of the church’s history. The compound piers vary in design, the middle pair having annulets with dog-tooth, the outer with keeled shafts and spurs and nail-head around the capitals.  The piers carry high double-chamfered pointed arches.

The chancel arch has triple responds and annulets, and continuous mouldings around the pointed arch. Looking east it frames the 1888 false hammer-beam roof (painted blue), which in turn frames the triple-lancet east window with its stained glass. The chancel received a complete make-over around 1900, with the insertion of a dark-stained oak chancel screen with rood cross, stencilling around the walls (painted a gloomy dark green) and a floor laid with encaustic tiles. The three steps up to the chancel confirm the High Victorian spirit behind this scheme. The church retains its full complement of choir stalls, pews and other furniture of this time.