Church Heritage Record id19321

Ruined west tower, nave and chancel under one roof, south porch, north, chancel chapel.

The remains of the tower seem to be partly Saxon or early Norman or in origin, and the stone used for the north-west quoins of the nave suggests a similar date. Nothing else, however, from this period remains. The south wall has some Y-traceried windows suggesting a thirteenth-century date and also a Perpendicular window. The north chapel was rebuilt for the most part in c.1850, but the west wall is still mediaeval. The west tower fell on 30 March, 1959.

So much of the tower has been taken down since the upper part fell that its silhouette is not very impressive, but rather sad. Nothing recognisable in an architectual sense remains on the walls of the tower, only the plain tower arch and small round-headed window above it which suggest a Saxon date. (The tower was originally above twice the height of the tallest remaining section, with a slightly smaller circular stage rising above the ground stage and then a later octagonal top with bell openings in the cardinal directions).

The rest of the body of the church is under one roof, with the roofless south porch now disused and the section of nave into which it led now unroofed. The porch, as Ladbrooke's engraving of c.1820 shows, has been rebuilt in the nineteenth century to a plainer design than the original, eliminating a outer square frame to the doorway and a statue niche above. The outer doorway is now quite simple with a moulded arch resting on attached shafts against the responds. The windows in the side walls, small single lights, have long been blocked with bricks. The inner doorway, similar in form to the outer, retains a mediaeval door with shallow traceried panels carved in relief.

In the south wall of the church the fenestration is the only feature, there being no buttresses. The first window is the latest in date, being Perpendicular with two lights with cusping in four-centred heads, the head of the whole window outlined by a brick hood-mould now much decayed. Between this window and the next is a slate tablet recessed into the wall in memory of William Bowess, d.1729 aged fifteen weeks, whose parents "opposite within 28 foot thay lay in the Vault"; at the top are an hour-glass, a skull and two crossed bones. The next window is of two lights with moulded stone Y tracery, and the third window is similar. Finally, towards the east end, is a single uncusped light.

The east wall of the chacel was repaired when the north chapel was rebuilt, and is now provided with a moulded plinth and ashlar buttresses with panels of tracery carved on the east faces under gablets. The east window, set high in the wall, has the old stanchions and saddlebars and much clear and greenish glass of considerable age. The east wall of the north chapel has a two-light window with much careful moulding on the exterior face which is identically repeated, even to the unnecessary hood-mould, on the inner face. The north wall is blind save for a doorway in the same rather spiky Gothic with a door decorated with similar tracery, also repeated on the inner face. Not only was this part of the church most easily visible from the Hall but the door and a box pew which formerly stood within the chapel were provided for the use of the family who lived there. The west wall of the chapel has a single-light window with cinquefoiled cusping under an ogee moulded head. The north wall of the nave has nothing to show save blocks of brown gingerbread-like carstone used for the north-west quoins suggesting a Saxon date and an entirely plan doorway opposite the south entrance.

About a quarter of the church is now roofless since the fall of the tower, but the remainder, though partly open to the elements, has survived in remarkably good condition. The plaster on the walls of the western end of the nave has held its key surprisingly well, and the tower arch and small window above which suggest a Saxon Early Norman date are also in fair condition. The floor throughout the church is paved with panments except in the north chapel where concrete has been laid, but few furnishings survive except for the altar, parts of the screen, the font, two harmoniums, communion rails and the reredos. There are no pews but the timber platforms remain. The roof is ceiled with a plaster ceiling which hides the rafters, and the walls are painted with an attractive faded ochre. The north chapel stands under a pont roof and is separated from the body of the church by two arches on an octagonal central pier and semi-octagonal responds with moulded capitals, the arches themselves also being moulded. The chapel contains one foliated slab and one monument.