Church Heritage Record 619010

Nave and chancel under one roof ridge, the chancel with an apse ; the clerestory runs along the north and south walls and round the apse. North aisle with apsidal Lady Chapel north of the chancel ; south aisle under several cross-gables in effect forming separate chapels at right-angles to the nave; tower and spire south of chancel with a tall narrow space between, which was originally the organ chamber. The ground floor of the tower, intended as the main entrance to the church, is now the choir vestry. There is a porch at the west end of the south aisle and a parish room at the west end of the north aisle.

Nave 95ft. by 31.5ft; north ailse 14ft. wide; chancel 33ft. by 31.5ft.

The church was built to designs by Ewan Christian; the foundation stone was laid with full masonic ceremonial by William Percy Herrick of Beau Manor in the presence of the Bishop of Peterborough, William Connor Magee, on St. Mark's Day (25 April) 1871; the bishop consecrated the completed church on St. Mark's Day 1872. The builders were Osborne Brothers. The west end was extended one bay by Edward Shearman in 1903-4. The rainwater heads on the church are dated 1871 and 1902.

This striking church is an uncommonly bold design for Ewan Christian, and must be one of his finest churches. It is best seen from the south-east where the massive tower and spire group well with the tall chancel apse to the east and the receding cross gables of the south aisle to the west. But from the north-east also, from the road into Leicester, the crescendo of small Lady Chapel apse, substantial chancel apse and then the tower and spire is equally impressive.

The great chancel apse is very plain in the lower part, with a plinth of three chamfered courses of stonework (which continues round the rest of the building) and then two widely spaced stringoourses of limestone dividing the plain wall surface into three uneven strata. Above these is a series of seven lancet windows set within arcading at clerestory level, and each with a quatrefoil within the head. The spandrels of the curved wall between the arches and the moulded course at eaves level are diapered with triangles of brown and grey stone.

The Lady Chapel on the north of the chancel has a much smaller apse with five simple lancet windows and no structural decoration, and west of it the aisle has a broad cross-gable which inside appears as a transept opening off the chancel. It has three lancets with two quatrefoils and an octofoil above set in plate tracery. West of this again the aisle stretches to the west end of the church, divided by buttresses into five bays with two or three lancet windows in each. The westernmost bay has a doorway under a low cross-gable. The clerestory above has eight lancets under a continuous moulded hood. and then in the more recent west bay three lancets following their design, but slightly further apart.

The tower is very large, square in plan and of four stages of which the lowest forms the original main entrance, with a double doorway under a moulded arch and stone gable in the south wall. In the gable itself is a roundel carved with the winged lion of St. Mark in relief, and in the tympanum above the doors is a cinquefoil of foliage with more foliage of different types in the spandrels. The second stage is windowless and houses the ringing chamber, and this and the stage above, housing the clock, are reached by a spiral staircase on the east face which adds its own semi-circular form to the interplay of apses on the east elevation of the building. Apart from vertical slits for light, its only feature is an arcade of tiny arches at the top under the stone semi-conical roof. The third stage, which houses the clock, has no windows except a narrow slit below the clock face in the south wall. The belfry stage, after the severity of the lower stages, is highly effective, with two bell-openings of paired lights in each face with shafts and gablets and a quatrefoil for tracery and decoration at the angles of recessed circles on bands of stone, typical of the 1860's. The parapet is quite low, pierced with series of arches, but the pinnacles at the angles are by contrast very tall, with arcading and then bands of darker stone in the slender caps. There are also small pinnacles in the centre of each parapet supporting small figures of winged angels; the spire is a larger version of the design of the pinnacles, with three bands of dark stone increasingly close together as they ascend. It has tall single-light lucarnes under exaggeratedly pointed gablets in the lowest part, but otherwise no decoration except for recessed roundels in the dark bands. The apex is crowned by an iron weathervane.

The south flank of the church is an interesting solution. to the problem of a trapezoidal site which is more typical of architects more inventive than Christian. The site tapers towards the west, so that a straightforward aisle as on the south was impossible. The clerestory above, however, is symmetrical with that on the north. Christian's solution was to provide three broad cross-gables, each receding behind the plane of its neighbour as they move further west, and there is a short section of canted wall and a porch on the south side of the later addition. Each gable has a three-light window with lower central light and a sexfoil in plate tracery above.

The interior of the church is faced with exposed brickwork, with courses of alternating brown and grey, a tonality which is carried through to the stone arches of the arcades, which have voussoirs of alternately grey and buff stone. The arches themselves are very broad, the arcades being of only three bays originally with a fourth added at the west in 1904. They all have two roll-mouldings along receding orders and are carried on pillars of low proportions of polished Shap granite with the crisp foliate capitals of Ketton stone so typical of the date, and roll-mouldings above square bases. In the spandrels of the arches are roundels with figures of Ezekiel and David and the twelve apostles arranged in pairs, executed in mosaic (Jeremiah and Isaiah are on the north side of the chancel). Above the arcade a horizontal stringcourse divides off the clerestory, which has no vertical features to link it with the arcades. This has shafts with foliate capitals to each window, two windows to each bay and brick reveals and two-coloured voussoirs like the arcades. Detached shafts of larger girth but less height between each pair of windows support the principals of the roof, which is ceiled with a timber barrel vault divided into numerous bays by transverse timber ribs. The timber vault is plastered and painted with a series of geometric patterns and simple stylised flowers, the ribs decorated with chevrons. A painted text also runs at the level of the sills of the clerestory. The north aisle windows are also shafted but those of the south aisle are plainer. The south aisle is in fact divided into two chapels and an ante chamber to the original porch in the base of the tower, the latter (where the font originally stood) with a timber roof decorated with stylised lilies and tongues of fire. Most of the windows have original glazing of green and clear glass, some in the south aisle with good glazing patterns and "bullseye" round panes. The floors are paved with wood blocks with red, buff and green tiles in the alleys.

The chancel arch is scarcely evident, consisting merely of two attached shafts at each side with stylised scrolled leaves between and foliate capitals, and a transverse rib across the vault slightly heavier than the others. Beyond it the chancel is of one broad bay with a tall arch on the south opening into the former organ chamber and a lower arch of more architectural interest on the north, containing two subsidiary arches carried on two pillars of polished green granite, and a big open circle much in the manner of Butterfield, which communicates with the Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle. The chancel is raised three steps above the nave and is very spacious, paved with stone, and with a number of shallow steps paved with red, buff and green tiles leading up to a long stone altar. The apse walls originally had three tiers of arches, the lower two blind and only the third at clerestory level pierced for windows. This was changed in 1910 when the lower two tiers were united into one tall series of trefoiled arches, and these in turn were filled with a series of seven painted panels of large dimensions which unite to form one great representation of "The Progress and Triumph of Labour". Between these tall shafts rise from the floor to the wall-head and carry timbers for a vault which is simply the cradle roof of the chancel adapted to a semi-circular plan. On the south side of the sanctuary is a stone credence shelf with a piscina.

The porch in the base of the tower has a brick vault with four stone ribs meeting at a central bell-way, and on the east side a door gives access to the tower staircase. The base of the organ chamber between this and the chancel now forms the clergy vestry. The north Lady Chapel has a wood-block floor laid in 1929, when the walls were given a dado panelled in pale oak and the apse was painted white. The sanctuary floor was paved with white stone and black squares set lozenge-wise at the intersections. The ceiling is painted blue and spangled with gold stars.