Church Heritage Record 638112

West tower, nave, north aisle, north vestry and chancel.

Nave estimated to be c 11m (36ft) x 5m (16ft), chancel 6m (19’5 ft) long.

The chapel was built c1200 as a chapel-of-ease within Dunham chapelry to serve the population of the surrounding hamlets, with evidence for medieval settlement visible in the form of earthworks east of Darlton itself at Whimpton and west of it at Kingshaugh Farm, where there was a fortified stone hunting lodge, abandoned in 1217 but parts of which survive in the later buildings. The first curate is mentioned in 1331. The north aisle looks to have been added and the chancel perhaps extended in the 14th century.

The church was partly rebuilt and restored by the Nottingham architects Hine & Evans who added the north vestry. The chancel was restored by Ewan Christian, whereby the 13th-century east window and piscina were apparently kept.

The church is given some vertical emphasis by the 3-stage tower, although it is a little overpowered in this respect by the surrounding trees, at least in summer. In terms of its fabric the tower may still be mostly of c 1200, though much repaired. The pyramid cap is Victorian.  A string-course defines each stage. The belfry has 2-light blocked openings in each face with a stone mullion supporting a depressed arched head.  There is a single clock face to the south and west and a single lancet to the north and west faces of the second stage, the latter of which looks original. The tower is set on a plinth.

The rest of the building is externally a Victorian church of some quality and charm, but there is evidence on the inside that total rebuilding of the nave and north aisle did not take place.  The thickness of the nave walls and the simple window openings, as well as repairs in brick, might support this view.  The windows tracery appears to have been completely replaced in the Early Decorated style, with the exception of the east window which may be original.

The nave has two pointed 2-light windows with tracery, cusping, hoodmould and label stops framed by buttresses of two weatherings.  In the western bay is the most obvious remnant of the Norman church, an (albeit heavily restored) arched doorway of c1200, with slim engaged columns and waterleaf capitals supporting a moulded arch with dogtooth hoodmould. The door itself has attractive scrolling ironwork.

The west end of the north aisle has a single multifoil with hoodmould and label stops over, above a brick and tile lean-to shed. The north wall has three cusped pointed lights each with hood mould and label steps. The east wall has a small pointed and cusped light in the apex. Tall, thin stone stack at the east end of the north aisle at the interface with the vestry.  The gabled vestry itself has a single small pointed and cusped light with hoodmould and label stops, to the left is a doorway with wooden door. The east wall has a single pointed and traceried 2-light window with cusping, hood mould and label stops.

The chancel east window is a pointed 5-light with intersecting tracery and plain hoodmould. In the south chancel wall is a central pointed arched doorway with hoodmould and decorated label stops. To the right is a single 2-light pointed window and to the left a single pointed light, both with tracery, cusping, hoodmould and head label stops. There are coped ridges with finial crosses to all the gables, and serrated ridge tiles.

Moving inside, the nave is of bare stone, with brick used around the inner window and door reveals and roof lines.  Looking first west, there is a double chamfered pointed tower arch with Victorian Gothic text over (my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people Isaiah 56:7), filled to the springing by a dark-stained wooden screen with door embellished with trefoils, glazed above.  Traces of an earlier roof-line can be discerned in the gable.

Looking east, 3-bay nave arcade with octagonal columns and moulded capitals supporting double chamfered arches, the western respond being a continuation of the inner chamfer and the eastern side supported on a castellated corbel. The nave and north aisle roofs are attractively decorated with cross motifs, the former a good waggon construction.  The floor is of red and black quarry tiles, the central alley under a red carpet, with red also used against the east walls of the altars to the nave and aisle. The furniture is all of the 19th century, with attractive light-stained pews with curved ends.

The outer arch of the double chamfered chancel arch is supported on slim engaged columns with foliate decorated capitals, with a Victorian text in Gothic lettering around the arch (Come let us worship and fall and kneel before the Lord our Maker Psalm xcv. 6). The chancel is plastered, and there are traces of further texts and decoration behind this. In the north wall is a chamfered arched vestry doorway, adjacent to which are two (anonymous) brasses of a Knight and a Lady set into a stone slab built into the wall. East of this is an aumbry with cusped arch, decorated spandrels, drip mould and label stops in a yellow sandstone, 13th-century, presumably relocated here.  In the south chancel wall is a simpler chamfered arched piscina. There are simple choir stalls and a stone reredos with texts under the east window, which has attractive and colourful stained glass.  Patterned tile floor in red and yellow.