Church Heritage Record 618224

3-bay nave with bell turret over the western bay, south porch, 2-bay chancel and large north vestry.

Nave c 10m (35ft) x 6m (19ft), chancel and vestry 5m x 4m.

Brampton is recorded in Domesday, assessed at two hides, no church is mentioned. Brampton was held by Gloucester Abbey, hence the later name. A part of Brampton to the east of the church was held by the monastery of St Guthlac in Hereford. The area was subject to frequent Welsh raids into the early 12th century, and it may be that the church was built (or rebuilt) after this activity reduced. At the Dissolution Brampton was granted to the Rudhall family, the patronage of the church passing to the Bishop of Hereford.

The Medieval building consists of an early 12th-century nave and chancel and timber-framed south porch, the latter dated to the 14th.  Apart from the 12th-century east window the Medieval windows have been variously dated to the 13th and 15th centuries, but could all be 14th; and there has been much replacement. The west wall was perhaps rebuilt and the belcote added in 1686, see the inscription above the west window.

The church was restored in 1848 and 1857, in the latter phase the chancel was substantially remodelled and the north vestry was added. A print showing it before the latter restoration (1853?) shows the south side with a 3-light to the nave and a 4-light and the east lancet to the chancel, but no lancets to the side walls which must, if this is accurate, have all been additions of 1857, made to match the east window.

A further restoration was undertaken in 1907-8 by W D Caröe with a bequest provided in memory of Rev H S Evans, described in the ICBS archive as “reflooring, 5 new windows (half the total) and general repairs”. The bell turret was largely rebuilt and the roofs re-slated at this time, the porch restored and the church refurnished. Caröe attempted to restore the church to its pre-Victorian appearance, for example remaking the 4-light south chancel window which had been taken out and replaced with a lancet by his predecessors. 

This is a small and compact building of considerable charm. Its square shingle-clad bell turret with pyramidal roof would not look out of place in rural Sussex, but the red stone identifies the region. The belfry has small 2-light openings with round-arched heads, brass weathercock to the roof. 

The west wall is pierced by a 4-light pointed window with decorated tracery of the 14th century. The plaque above this has the date 1686 and the names of two churchwardens. Coped gables and notably lower chancel and gabled vestry, no buttresses, plain gable cross finials.

The south wall of the nave has a 19th-century trefoil-headed light to the west bay, adjacent to the partly timber-framed gabled porch, which retains much 14th-century timber.  The side walls have two square lights each, glazed with good ferrementa, the porch generally having a definite Caröe look about it. The square-headed window east of the porch with three trefoil-headed lights is shown in an early 19th-century pre-restoration print and dates to the 14th century, though restored.

The north nave wall has one lancet with trefoiled head at the east end adjacent to the bulge in the wall for the rood stair, and west of this another 3-light window as to the south wall, which may be by Caröe. West of this, opposite the south doorway, is clear evidence of a blocked doorway.

The chancel has a small restored early 12th-century round arch-headed lancet with splayed reveals to the east end and a 14th-century style trefoil-headed light and square-headed window with four trefoiled lights to the east bay (Caröe’s replacement).  The gabled north vestry has a square-headed 2-light in the east wall and paired lancets under a hoodmould to the west, trefoiled heads again, and a pointed doorway in the north wall.

Moving inside, the interior is whitewashed, but the rubble construction of the thick 12th-century walls is clearly visible. The nave has an open arch-braced roof with a collar, again probably 14th-century, with an arch-braced frame supporting the tower on two posts to the west bay. Floor of quarry tiles, mostly under red carpet.  The nave is fully pewed with good quality benches which have square moulded ends in a 16th-century style. 

The upper part of the rood stair survives, twisting into the thickness of the wall above the chancel arch on the north side. The latter dates to the late 14th-century and is broad and 4-centred, of two chamfered orders carried on re-set and widened 12th-century responds, these with attached shafts with scalloped capitals to outer western order. The filigree chancel screen is by Caröe, as are the chancel furnishings including a sanctuary lamp, good choir stalls with intricate tracery and stylised poppyheads, and a large oak reredos around the east lancet window. This is a very fine liturgical setting and a good example of Caröe’s work.

Within the chancel there is the scalloped bowl of a 12th-century pillar piscina set on a much later, 19th- or early 20th-century shaft and base. The floor is covered in paisley carpet covering ledger slabs, barrel-vaulted timber ceiling with cross-ribbing. The 2-bay arcade to the vestry / organ chamber has a central column of white stone with moulded capital and arches.  Behind a good iron screen with gate it contains the displayed pipes, console and bulk of the organ with just enough space to move around behind. There is an altar against the east wall.