Church Heritage Record 621490

West tower with spire, aisleless 4-bay nave and chancel with north vestry and organ chamber.

[Approximate] Nave 16m (50ft) x 6.5m (21.5ft), chancel 6m (19ft) x 4m (13.5ft)

A small mediaeval church comprising nave, north aisle, chancel and west tower was the first known building on the site. It was replaced by a new church to the designs of Charles Kirk of Sleaford, 1842-4 at at cost of £3000, for the Reverend Francis Swan Lord of the Manor, patron and rector. An enquiry was made to the ICBS in 1843 for a grant towards the interior seating, but no grant application was submitted. Burials from the earlier church may exist beneath the chancel floor which is inlaid with three historic ledgers.

The Sausthorpe chancel was enriched in the late 19th century. The floor level was raised, a chancel screen installed, the decorative ceiling inserted and the north vestry was enlarged to house an organ, perhaps by Temple Moore, who worked at nearby Raithby in 1886-7. Applications for repairs were made to the ICBS, and approved, in both 1947-9 and 1961-2.

The name, Sausthorpe, is believed to have derived from a Viking farming settlement - Sauthr's Thorpe. Archaeological records identify Neolithic and Bronze Age flint implements, Prehistoric and Roman enclosures and cropmarks, possible Bronze Age round barrows and medieval pottery finds within 1km of the site. There is also understood to have been a medieval church on the site before Kirk's rebuild. Therefore, the archaeological potential of the site is considerable. There are no known designations relating to the ecology of the plot, though it contains mature trees.

This elaborate tower and spire, seen on approach from some distance, rises from a tall two-stage west tower (defined by stringcourses between the stages) with angle buttresses to the corners terminating in decorated gablets. At ground level there is a moulded plinth that continues around the building. A west doorway with moulded arch is set within a rectangular surround with carved spandrels. The double oak doors are carved with applied tracery. Immediately above the doorway is a Perpendicular three-light west window with transomed cinquefoiled lights and a moulded hood. In the side walls are single quatrefoils with narrow rectangular lights. A stair turret for access to the gallery and nave roof rises to the level of the nave in the south-east angle of the tower, with further narrow rectangular openings.

The belfry stage is set back and has two-light slate-louvred openings with cinquefoiled heads and tracery quatrefoils. Below the parapet is a band of quatrefoils and two large gargoyles on each face except the east. At the angles of the base course on the buttresses are small projecting heads. The parapet has battlements and tall octagonal crocketted angle pinnacles linked to the spire by slender crocketted flying buttresses. The spire has three tiers of lucarnes in alternate faces and slightly overlarge crockets (a Lincolnshire trait which helps the appearance of the spire in distant views). It is capped by a finial and a plain iron cross. The combination of pinnacles and flying buttresses to a spire likens the church to W A Nicholson.

To the east is a four-bay aisleless nave with two-light Perpendicular windows to each bay with cinquefoil-headed main lights and panel tracery under a moulded hood with returned ends. At sill level a stringcourse encircles the building. Three-stage buttresses define the bays finishing beneath an embattled parapet which continues around the shallow gabled east end. Fixed to the apex of the east nave wall is an elaborate carved stone cross set above a corbel, carved as an angel with hands clasped in prayer. A chimney extends from the south-east corner buttresses.

A lower two-bay chancel extends to the east. It is without a parapet, and the roof has a steeper pitch. There are angle buttresses at the eastern corners and a single buttress at the midpoint of the south wall. The western bay on the south has a single cinquefoil-headed lancet and the eastern bay has a two-light window with an ogee tracery quatrefoil. The east window is of three lights, and similar to the west window, except the lights below the transom are shorter and blocked with ashlar. A stone chimney projects from the north roof-slope.                                            

Projecting to the north side is the organ chamber with a hipped roof. It has a window of three rectangular lights in the north wall and a Caernarvon-arched doorway in the west wall. The vestry is located within a flat-roofed extension to its east with two-light window in the east wall. These are later additions and can be differentiated by changes in the brickwork and the simpler chamfered plinth around the base.

The west door is raised by a step and opens into a porch within the tower space. A small archway closed by a gate to the south side gives access to the staircase leading up to the west gallery, which sits within the tower space, and upto the nave roof. The tall tower arch has four orders of chamfers of which the outer three are continuous and the innermost is set on semi-octagonal shafts. The shallow west gallery spans the whole width of the nave. It is supported on slender octagonal cast-iron (or wood?) piers and is fronted by blind tracery panelling. The gallery has deteriorated and is possibly unsafe.

Glazed traceried wooden doors with open ogee tracery arches at the top and panelled tracery at the bottom, open into the nave beneath the gallery. Red and black floor tiles laid diagonally continue from the lobby into the aisle of the nave, though they are obscured by a length of carpet. Pine pews are fixed to timber platforms to either side. They have plain rectangular ends. Wood panelling to the nave walls upto the top of the benches with the walls above plastered and painted white. The roof has a truss at each bay with a tie-beam and queen posts set on brackets and enriched (as in Nicholson’s churches) with elaborate cusped struts and tracery. The timbers are carried on small polygonal moulded corbels, and the intermediate rafters have similar corbels set above the centres of the windows which have plain chamfered reveals. The roof between the principals and purlins is boarded and painted white which is now peeling. The glazing consists of diamond leaded panes of clear glass (except the south-east window) with a frosted glass border, set within cast iron frames. Suspended light-fittings contribute to the illumination of the space supported by spotlights. Old heating pipes remain in place.

At the east end of the nave are several rows of children’s benches. A platform extends across the width of the nave, just west of the chancel arch which is screened by an ornate carved oak screen in Perpendicular style tracery ornamented with crockets and finials, c. 1890. There is a small doorway to the north-east angle accessing the organ and vestry and the pulpit sits in the south-east angle. The platform is paved with two ornate panels of encaustic floor tiles, one of roundels and the other of motifs accurately copied from the mid-thirteenth-century tiles made at Chertsey and laid in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey, including Edward the Confessor and the Pilgrim (eight tiles), The King enthroned with a pet dog (four tiles), the Queen similarly enthroned, with a hawk on her wrist (four tiles), mitred ecclesiastic (four tiles) and two musicians playing a harp and a rebec (four tiles); one group of four tiles makes up an Agnus dei, three groups of four make up circular patterns of stylised foliage, two groups of four have stylised animals in circles, one group of four makes a rose window and two more groups of four the arms of Henry III.

The tall pointed chancel arch has two chamfers, the inner carried on polygonal shafts. The chancel is raised by a step (19th century intervention). The roof is panelled and painted with text on the cross-beams.  Stencilling over the high altar depicts The Agnus Dei, the chalice and host, the sacred monogram IHS, angels and The Instruments of the Passion within wreaths. The chancel floor is laid with three 18th century black marble ledger slabs in memory of members of the Dymoke family.  These appear to have been retained from the previous church and relaid in the 19th century. Choir stalls face each other in collegiate style to north and south, the organ is located to the north side. A passage alongside the organ leads to the vestry with its flat ceiling and wood block floor.

The sanctuary is raised by three steps and paved with white stone paviors set diagonally, with black squares at the intersections. The east wall is panelled.