Church Heritage Record 607013

Aisled nave and chancel. West tower, south porch, transepts, north chancel chapel and north vestry.

Taken from the RCHM. Nave 47 ½ ft x 18 ¼ ft. Chancel 39ft x 18ft. Crossing 18ft by 16 ½ ft.

The church as it stands is essentially a Victorian edifice; such was the extent of the reworking in the 19th century. However the earliest parts of the church are the vast central pillars of the crossing which date to c.1200 and indicate an earlier building of considerable scale with a tower over the crossing.  Later in the 13th century the aisles were added, of which the arcades remain and in the next century a chapel to the north of the chancel.

How long the central tower lasted is not clear but in the 15th century the west tower was erected. Of the next three centuries the only visible change to the structure is on the north side of the chancel where the arch was altered to accommodate the large monument.

An inscription under the tower records a rebuilding in 1811 at the instigation of William Dent, which Canon Clarke & Pevsner attribute to the architect Robert Smirke. Clarke suggests the aisles were rebuilt and the top of the tower removed but what is visible today is the south porch and the priest’s door, both elaborate and ‘fancy-gothic’. The church guide notes George Gibson was the benefactor and that the church was in some disrepair, with a large sycamore tree growing out of the side of one of the tower walls.

However, the vast majority of what appears today, particularly externally, is the work of J S Crowther (1832-1893), a Manchester architect, at the behest of incumbent Canon Weston. Pevsner reports that Crowther worked at St Lawrence from the 1850s but other sources suggest from the 1860s, Clarke dates it more precisely to 1867-86.  In any case the work was well executed. Both aisles were rebuilt although the arcades, as mentioned above, were untouched. The nave received a clearstorey and a higher pitch to the roof. Clarke reports that Crowther also raised the tower and added the spirelet, built the transepts, rebuilt the chancel and added the vestry. All in all a thorough, complete and certainly competent restoration of the building.

Very little has changed in the last century except for the very recent enclosing and provision of facilities within the chapel to the north of the chancel (Threkeld Chapel). An accessible toilet has been neatly constructed here against the north wall together with a small kitchenette.

Undoubtedly a church and site of high archaeological significance. The HER/ SMR should be consulted prior to any future consideration of the site.

Although grand in scale, this church feels in proportion. The west tower is of three stages marked by string courses; the upper 19th-century and the lower two 15th-century. On the lowest stage there is a three-light pointed window in the western face with vertical tracery. There are angle buttresses to the first two stages with several offsets. The upper stage is crenellated with seven projecting gargoyles set in a band with floriate detailing just below the parapet. On each face of the upper stage there is a two-light cusped louvred opening under a pointed arch, all with carved head stops. On the eastern face a clock face is squeezed to the south side of the louvres.

At the north-east corner of the tower there is a small spirelet built into the upper stage. Octagonal in plan there is considerable attention to detail. The floriate banding of the main tower joins seamlessly around the spirelet where there are small scaled down animal heads. Before the spire begins there is a miniature parapet and more carved animal heads. The spire is surmounted with a cross finial.

The nave is steeply pitched, reaching to the top of the second stage of the tower. The chancel maintains the pitch on a slightly lower level and each is demarcated with finials.

Just beneath the eaves of the nave there is a clearstorey of six roundels, each with a quatrefoil. The aisle roofs are mono-pitched and lean against the nave just below the clearstorey. On the south elevation the aisle has three two-light windows and on the north, four; all are either geometrical or intersecting in style. The bays are divided by buttresses with a single deep offset and a small cusped gablet detail. At the west end of the south aisle there is a single lancet window and on the north aisle in the same position a two-light geometrical window.

The main entrance is through a porch at the west end of the south aisle. This was part of the work carried out in 1811 and stands out with its decorative detailing including the inscription D.O.M. and Isa XXXV 1 & 2. The pitch of the roof is mostly hidden by the elaborate south-facing gable which has a bold pediment. On either side of the pediment, extending upwards from each buttress, are big gabled finials set on the angle. The whole piece is linked together with an intersecting band of miniature arcading and decorated with quatrefoils and roundels. As the porch meets the aisle there is a slight dormer set into the roof, presumably to allow height for the internal door.  This door is a superb feature of the 13th century with pointed arch, three moulded orders and dog tooth decoration.

The transepts are positioned on either side of what was once the central crossing tower. At the point where the roof of the transepts meet the nave, there are two small dormer openings, with two-light windows under pointed arches, allowing light down into the crossing.

The south transept has five single lancets, two on the south and east faces and a single one to the west. The lancets have a linking dogtooth hoodmould and are divided by chamfered buttresses with single offsets. On the south face there is rose window at the top of the gable with cusped segments. The north transept differs slightly from the south by having a single lancet to the east and west elevations and three closely set together on the north face. There is a similar rose window with plainer segments.

The south elevation of the chancel has three bays. In the western bay there is a three-light window under a pointed arch with cusped lights and a sexfoiled roundel overhead. The eastern bay has similar two-light window with a quatrefoil roundel. In the central bay is an elaborate chancel entrance. Here a grand porch has been created in ‘fancy-Gothic’ style. It is rectangular in plan with two square buttresses standing forward around a single door under a deeply set roundheaded arch.  Each of the buttresses has a small crocketted gablet surmounting it. At the top of the porch there is a decorative type of crenellation and a banded arcade below and, on either side of the door, two motifs (bread and wine?). Inscribed along the crenellation is the text Ecce Sponsus Venit.  A two-light window is visible behind the porch.

The east window of the chancel is geometrical in style, with four equal cusped lights, two quatrefoils and a large octofoil.

The north side of the chancel has a chapel and vestry leaning against it; the former is to the west and of medieval construction, the latter a modern addition.  The vestry has a pair of thin small lancets in its east wall and single lancets at either end of its north face. Between the lancets on the north elevation there is a pair of prominent octagonal chimneys with capped tops and a shouldered doorway.

The chapel has a slightly higher roof than the vestry; there is a small doorway and a two-light cusped window under a pointed arch.

Internally the nave and crossing are lofty and spacious. The arcading in the nave is simple and elegant: three bays of pointed arches, each of two chamfered orders on quatrefoil piers, with moulded bases and capitals. The southern capitals have nail head decoration.

The westernmost respond of the north arcade against the crossing pier is 12th or 13th century in date and has a square chamfered abacus which is comparable with the responds of the crossing but much lower in height. The eastern arch of the north aisle is of the same date, and has the same responds as described above. The arch is pointed and of three chamfered orders. Pevsner suggests these responds were repositioned here by Crowther from the eastern arch of the crossing.

The south aisle has a much narrower and therefore more acutely pointed arch to the transept. Also 13th-century in date, this arch has two chamfered orders and responds each with a round shaft, moulded base and capital.

In the north transept the space is occupied by the organ positioned centrally with space to walk all around. There is a pointed arch leading to the north chapel which is filled with panelling and a doorway.

The south transept is the Dent memorial and has lavish arcading around the three walls on two levels; family plaques are positioned all around. Between the transept and the crossing there is a good quality oak screen.

The opening to the tower is a tall pointed arch with one continuous chamfered order. Above the arch on the west wall there are clear scars of a much lower roof line.

The arches to the crossing are all late 12th-century in date except for the eastern which is Crowther’s work and set further back. The older arches are pointed and each of three chamfered orders. The responds each have three attached shafts (two round and the centre keeled) with plain capitals and square chamfered abaci.

Above the western arch of the crossing there is a small arcade under a pointed arch with three stepped lancet openings. Above the north and south arches of the crossing there are two small two-light openings set within double pointed arches.

The eastern arch of the crossing (chancel arch) is pointed and of two chamfered orders. Immediately to the north in the chancel is the wide segmental (could also be described as Tudor) arch which dates to the early 16th century. Now filled and plastered to create a separate room to the chapel, this arch is perhaps the most incongruous element in the building. There is a small alcove, through a pointed arch to the north of the chancel, which leads down, past the once external 14th-century east window of the chapel, to the eastern entrance of the chapel. There is an internal enclosure over the steps down into the boiler room east of the chapel. 

To the south of the chancel there is a segmental arch to the external door which has a two-light window overhead; east of the door there is a stepped sedilia. The sanctuary has both a cusped aumbry and piscina. The head stops to the windows here are apparently depicting the Queen, the Bishop and other local individuals.