Description

HONKS KIRBY MILLERS LANE
SP49SE (North side)
8/17 Church of St. Edith
06/10/60
GV I

Church. C13 chancel; remainder rebuilt late C14. Considerable late C15
alterations and upper part of tower. Tower has early C18 parapet. Re-roofed late
C16. Restored and vestry added 1869. Regular coursed and ashlar red sandstone;
upper part of tower of grey sandstone. Roofs hidden by moulded cornices and
parapets. Nave and chancel in one; aisles and chapels in one, south-west tower,
south porch, south-east vestry. Decorated and Perpendicular styles. 7-bay nave
and chancel; 6-bay aisles and chapels. Chancel has splayed plinth. Massive
diagonal buttresses of 2 offsets. Shallow-pitched roof. 3-light east window has
C19 geometrical tracery. Moulded sill course stepped down to left and right.
Hood mould with return stops, and string course at springing. North side has 2
small blocked Tudor-arched windows, and blocked arched window above. 3-light
Perpendicular south window has transom and some renewed tracery. Low vestry has
splay plinth and clasping buttresses. Chamfered east doorway with hood mould and
plank door. Straight-headed 2-light Perpendicular windows to east and south.
South aisle and porch have moulded and splay plinth. Aisle has 3 large
buttresses of 2 offsets with crocketed pinnacles; smaller C19 east buttresses.
C19 windows. 3-light Perpendicular east window has deep hollow-chamfered jambs
and hood mould. South-east window has cusped Y-tracery. 3 large 3-light windows
have unusual curvilinear tracery. Large 2-storey Decorated porch abuts tower.
Stepped gable rebuilt C19. Large doorway of 2 moulded orders, chamfered back to
square bases. Hood mould continues to form sill course of tower south window.
Small 2-light window above has renewed tracery. Small narrow ogee lancet to
east. Interior has tierceron-star-vault with moulded ribs and angle shafts.
Large doorway of 3 moulded orders, with inner engaged shafts. C19 double-leaf
doors with decorative ironwork. North aisle north wall largely rebuilt C19.
Various splay plinths at differing heights. Massive buttress between aisle and.
nave. 3-light windows throughout. Largely renewed Perpendicular east window has
sill course. North side has east and west angle buttresses; west buttress has
gablet. Four C19 full-height buttresses of 2 offsets. Smaller buttress between
second and third bays. First, fifth and sixth bays have varying Perpendicular
tracery. Second, third and fourth bays have reticulated tracery. First 3 bays
have inverted splay sill course. Perpendicular west window has panel tracery.
Aisles have lean-to roofs. Nave has deeply-recessed west window with C19 bar
tracery. Massive tower of 2 stages. Double splay and moulded plinth. Massive
south, north and south-east buttresses of 4 offsets. High first stage has very
large 3-light west window with flowing tracery and deep splayed jambs and sill.
Above is a small 2-light Perpendicular window with transom. Sill course
continued across buttresses. South side is similar, but with 2-light window.
3-sided stair projection. Second stage has moulded 2-light Perpendicular bell
openings with transom and C19 Gothic pierced wood openings within. Breakfront
parapet has shaped gables with finials and crocketed pinnacles with
weathervanes, and trefoiled lancets, mostly blind. Interior: 3-bay chancel has
raised floor. Early English piscina and 3-bay sedilia have angle and detached
shafts and inner trefoiled arches. Blocked Tudor-arched door between them. North
wall has Tudor-arched recesses, formerly windows. C19 segmental arched opening
to chapel of 4 traceried lights. Nave and chancel have moulded Perpendicular
roof with tracery, on stone corbels. Perpendicular 6-bay north and 5-bay south
arcades have outer chamfered and inner moulded arches dying into moulded
lozenge-section piers. South arcade begins one bay further east, and cuts into
the south aisle tower arch. Nave south-west tower arch of 2 moulded orders, the
outer dying into the wall and the inner segmental pointed, and chamfered jambs.
2-bay chapels divided from aisles by late C19 stone and traceried wood screens.
North chapel has large C14 image niches with elaborate canopies in east angles.
Aisle has blocked Tudor-arched door, with another above, and blocked 4-centred
door to left. South chapel has ogee piscina. C19 ogee east door. Aisle has west
tower arch of chamfered outer and 2 moulded inner orders. Aisle and chapel roofs
have moulded beams and purlins, some renewed. Tower has tierceron-star-vault.
Fittings are almost entirely late C19. Stone reredos with alabaster cross.
Gothic brass altar rails. Octagonal stone pulpit. Painted Royal arms of Charles
II, dated l660, on chancel north wall. Iron-bound chest. Charities board dated
1714. Stained glass: east window 1869. West window by Hardnan. Aisles have late
C19 glass. Monuments: upper half of a defaced C14 effigy in north aisle. North
chapel: alabaster tombs of Feilding family have recumbent effigies. Sir William,
1547, and wife. Tomb chest with square shafts and shields. Basil, 1580, and
wife. Tomb chest with mourners and rudimentary balusters. North aisle: Lady
Augusta Feilding, 1848: reclining effigy. 7th Earl, 1865, and Countess of
Denbigh: effigies in relief. Both monuments are signed Mary Grant 1881. South
chapel: hatchment of Sir Thomas George Skipwith, 1790. The church was originally
part of a priory founded in 1077 for Benedictines of St. Nicholas at Angers, and
transferred to Carthusians in 1397. The spire fell in 1701. The restoration in
1869 cost eight thousand pounds.
(V.C.H.: Warwickshire,, Vol.VI, pp.177-180; Buildings of England: Warwickshire,
pp.356-357; J.A. Cossins: Excursion to Monks Kirby Church etc. in Transactions
of the Birmingham Archaeological Society, 1914, Vol.40, pp.43-46; Peter Summers:
Hatchments in Britain, Vol.I: Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire,
p.67; Kelly's Directory of Warwickshire, 1892, p.153).

Listing NGR: SP4632983143

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17528250

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
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  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)