Church Heritage Record 619221

Medium-sized church in grounds of country house. Two-bay chancel and three-bay nave with four-bay N and S aisles, the latter with SW stair turret and S porch; W tower with set-back spire.

A watching brief was undertaken during the excavation of a service trench along the footpath leading from Ashby Road to the church. Remains of the 18th century boundary wall, and an earlier gateway, were found. Human remains were also found at intervals along the length of the trench, and a large circular pit, filled with black soil, red tile, mortar and sandstone rubble, and a few pieces of 15th and 16th century pottery.

It is likely that the entire footprint of the church will be sensitive in terms of archaeology and human remains, although below-ground remains may have been disturbed in the 1854 rebuilding. The standing fabric of the tower, stair turret, W walls of nave and aisles and the aisle walls N and S should also be considered archaeologically sensitive. The churchyard will also be sensitive in terms of archaeology and human remains throughout.

The church is in the National Forest. The forest character is strongly expressed by the adjacent wooded parkland, esp on the N and W sides of the churchyard, which includes some C19 specimen trees and shrubs adding variety.The churchyard has a few mature trees on the N side. There are no TPOs but the site is in a conservation area so they are protected. Otherwise, the churchyard is mostly laid to grass between the headstones and monuments.

The church is some way from the village of Coleorton, which is a linear settlement along Moor Road 1.2km E. There may originally have been some settlement closer to the church, as the OS records the place name Church Town immediately S of the church. However, the place name may refer to the church alone as it was not uncommon for medieval churches to be separated from the villages they served. The earliest surviving fabric in the church dates from the C14.

Coal mining is recorded in the area from the early C13 and there are scheduled remains of early mineworkings close by to the north and south. The nature of the industry in its early period, characterised by gangs of 10 to 20 miners working a seam or an outcrop, may indicate that settlement locally was quite dispersed.

The church is immediately SW of Coleorton Hall. There was a medieval house and deer park here which were in existence by 1303. These, with the manorial estate, were acquired by the Beaumont family in 1426. Over the succeeding centuries, the Beaumonts exploited the coal deposits on their landholdings. The two brothers of the Sir Henry Beaumont whose tomb is in the church were entrepeneurs in the coal business in the Midlands and NE at the turn of the C17.

Other branches of the extensive Beaumont family were recusants but is not the case with the Coleorton branch. In the C18, they lived elsewhere but in about 1800, Sir George Beaumont (1753-1827), who was an amateur artist and a key figure in London artistic circles took up residence. At Coleorton, he hoped to find a place to house his collection and entertain artists and writers. He found a dilapidated house surrounded by mineworkings, some of them active. He set about improving his estate.

Besides coalmining, there was also quarrying for building stone in the area. One worked out quarry is immediately E of the churchyard and probably provided the stone for the church. The quarry site was soon absorbed into the landscape park of the Hall, which Beaumont created with the help of his architect, George Dance the Younger, and the landscape designer and theorist Uvedale Price. Beaumont’s correspondence with Price survives. Price’s manifesto was that parkland should not be an insulated place but one which was integrated with the working, populated countryside. Pre-existing features, whether rustic or elegant, were to be incorporated and, where necessary, augmented for Picturesque effect. Paths and carefully chosen features and vantage points would stimulate poetic and philosophical thoughts. The church was a crucial element in this. The mines close at hand presumably were not. The adjacent quarry site was laid out as a winter garden. The designer of this element was the poet William Wordsworth, perhaps assisted by Price.

In 1948, the estate was bought by the National Coal Board and used as offices. In 1997 it was sold to a property consortium and the house and outbuildings were converted to flats. A development of 29 new houses has recently been built on the site of the former kitchen garden, NW of hall and church.

On the approach from the S, the impression is one of height, as the church, with its tower and slender spire, rises up from the top of the steeply sloping churchyard. The effect is maximised by the height of the walls and the steep slope of the roof. This is the S aisle, which is wide and tall enough that nothing of the nave roof can be seen beyond it. From the vantage point where the above photo was taken, it might appear that there was one very big single cell space within.

The architectural development can be read from W to E.

The tower is substantially of the C14. It rests on a two-stage plinth, heavily weathered. Above this, it is of two stages with three-step angle buttresses NW and SW and truncated two-step right-angle buttresses projecting N and S at the other corners. The lower stage is tall and unbroken on S and N, while low down on the W there is a three-light arched window with intersecting Y tracery. Above a string course, the second stage has two-light arched and louvred openings on all sides and clock faces above the openings on N and S. Above a string course is a battlemented parapet. At the top of the SW corner is an octagonal stair turret giving onto the flat roof of the tower.

The spire is octagonal and recessed. On alternate faces, it has two-light arched and louvred openings under triangular hoods and, higher up, a lancet opening, otherwise similar.

The tower is built of irregular ashlar blocks of a buff-coloured sandstone, quite worn, with the plinth, parapet, and the stair turret of a rougher and redder sandstone. The spire is of the latter stone.

On the SW corner of the S aisle is a large octagonal stair turret, stepped out slightly at the bottom, with arrowslit openings on its S and NW faces. In its construction, it looks of a piece with the W tower, so C14. Of the same period, or a little later, is the ogee window on the first bay of the S aisle, above the porch. The aisle bays are defined by wide buttresses. The second bay has a big three-light window with Perp tracery most likely renewed in the 1854 restoration. It has a hood mould with corbel heads. The easternmost bay is blind but has a hoodmould to match the middle bay. The plinth of the aisle is worn, the ashlars above are much smoother than those of the tower and turret; they might be C15 or work of the 1854 restoration. The cornice and the four-light window with Perp-style tracery on the E are of 1854. The porch, gabled with its wide arched portal and three-light windows E and W, is of 1874. The S door itself is a double door in an arched opening, oak vertical boards with bold, curly strap hinges; 1854.

The N aisle is narrower than the S and is of four bays, not three. The first three bays from the W look to have ashlars of a piece with the tower, and so C14, with wide three-step buttresses. The cornice has ballflower decoration of this period. In the first bay, there is an arched window, off-centre, with a chamfer. It has a C19 vertical boarded oak door with large curly strap hinges. The next two bays have large three-light Dec-style traceried windows. The easternmost bay of the N aisle is slightly set back and has a slightly lower roof. It was entirely new construction of 1854. It has a two-light Dec-style traceried window on the N and a three-light Dec-style traceried window on the E.

The chancel was completely rebuilt in 1854. It has a five-light E window with Dec-style (tending to Flamboyant) tracery. On the S side is a two-light EE-style window with chamfered bar tracery.

The 1854 rebuilding and extending was the work of H I Stevens. Brandwood (see references below, p21) wrote of him: ‘The prolific Derby architect, Henry Isaac Stevens (1810–73) managed to step successfully across the ecclesiological chasm. Early Leicestershire churches include routine lancet-style churches at Donisthorpe (1838) and Ashby-de-la-Zouch (1838-40) but during the ‘40s he saw the light and was producing pure, Decorated churches…’. His work at Coleorton is one of these later, more informed essays.

The principal entrance is via the S door. The S aisle is scarcely less wide than the nave, and the ceiling is roughly the same height. This is therefore a large and generous space but there is scarcely a view at all of the chancel and none at all of the sanctuary. The easternmost bay of the aisle is screened on the N side with a C20 partition. There are two steps up and an altar at the E end: the aisle is ordered as a Lady chapel. The reason for the blind bay in the S aisle now becomes apparent, as the SE corner is occupied by the large and impressive Beaumont tomb (see below).

No access was gained to the stair turret at the SW corner. The QIR does not indicate its current status. It is not clear what its purpose was: it does not appear to provide access to the tower stair turret, and the presence of a C14 window over the (Victorian) S porch suggests that there was no parvise chamber. It may have served a parapet on the S side but, if so, why such an elaborate structure?

The S arcade rests on octagonal shafts with moulded octagonal bases and capitals; the arches are twice chamfered. Between the two easternmost bays, half shafts stand against a big pier from which the chancel arch springs on the N. The last bay of the S aisle and its arch are narrower than the rest. None of the bays properly relates to the fenestration on the S side. Overall, the masonry is smooth and would suggest C19 renewal. The aisle has a scissor brace roof with plastered panels between the trusses.

The nave is of three bays. It has a collar beam roof with king-post truss and struts with additional traceried members. Purlins and rafters are exposed, with plastered panels between.

The N aisle is of four bays but the easternmost bay is screened to provide the organ chamber with vestry behind and so functionally it relates more transeptally to the chancel. Nevertheless, it has two steps up and a fine E window as if it was intended as a chapel. The arcade has the same elements as that of the S aisle. The roof is also as that of the S aisle. The screening of the last bay is of considerable interest. On the W side, it is made up of imported elements (see discussion below under Woodwork). In terms of the architecture, it forms the W ‘wall’ of the organ chamber. On the S side, the lower part of the screen is made up of more imported pieces. Pevsner notes that this material was brought to the church by Sir George Beaumont, but it must have been in a different location then given that the last bay of the N aisle is entirely new work of 1854, ie after Beaumont’s death.

The chancel arch has a more complex moulding than that of the arcades. The chancel is up two steps; the sanctuary up another two. The sanctuary floor and the risers of the steps have C19 polychrome encaustic tiles. The ceiling has the same construction as that of the nave.

The entire interior of nave, aisles and chancel –that is, both finely-dressed stonework and plastered surfaces but not the panelling and the roof timbers - has been painted white. This is peeling in places.

The tower screen is of stone, with blind tracery and little buttresses with crocketed pinnacles either side of the central door, all below a dentil cornice; 1854, in the Perp style, most likely by Stevens, the architect of the rebuilding of the church. Ensuite with the pulpit and font, despite the Perp as opposed to Dec tracery. The white paint with gold detailing looks recent and inauthentic. This deserves attention from a suitably qualified accredited conservator.

The ground floor of the tower provides vestry space and storage. A wooden stair leads to the ringing chamber above. From there a ladder leads through the belfry to the clock chamber. These rooms were not inspected. It would appear from the QIR that there is currently no access from the upper stage of the tower to the tower roof, so the stair turret is presumably out of use.