Description

SK 89 SE BLYTON CHURCH LANE

9/2 Church of St. Martin 16.12.64 I

Parish Church. Cll, C13, C14, C15, C16, c.1860, coursed limestone rubble, rock faced ashlar, slate and lead roofs. Western tower, nave with clerestorey, north and south aisles, chancel. Tower of 3 stages separated by string courses, stepped angled buttresses, battlemented and pinnacled top. C16 3 light window with panelled tracery and hood mould built in to blocking of Romanesque west door. The annular base of one shaft survives on the south side of the blocked opening and the stones of the jambs can be traced to the sill level of the window. On the north side of the tower is a C19 light at ground floor level. Middle stage has a C19 trefoil headed light in the west and 2 small stair lights to the south, a blue painted clock face to the north. C16 paired lights to belfry stage having trefoil heads, 4 centred arches and hood moulds. North aisle rebuilt in C19 in rock faced ashlar with single lancet in the-west and east walls and 3 paired lancets in the north wall. To north clerestorey, 3 paired C15 cusped and ogee headed lights united under flat hood moulds with human head label stops, embattled parapet. Chancel north wall refaced in C19 beneath the string course with 2 C19 lancets. East window originally late C13 with geometric tracery, the lower parts of which survive; the rest is a C19 restoration. The south side refaced with rock faced ashlar, and has 2 C19 lancets and a C19 priest's door with hood mould. A further single light to the west is a 2 light window, ogee headed and cusped in a deeply chamfered reveal. South aisle has a large C15 3 light ogee headed and cusped window with flat double chamfered head in its east and west walls; there are 2 further similar windows in the south wall. The south doorway is a restored C14 opening with moulded reveals, hood mould and label stops. Embattled parapet concealing lead roof. The clerestorey matches that to the north. Inside: early C13 north and south arcades of 3 bays, both having keeled responds and 3 octagonal pillars, though one on the north side has a keeled quatrefoil plan. Arches are of 2 chamfered orders with hood moulds and human head label stops. The Romanesque tower arch has plain reveals, chamfered imposts which continue out for a short distance as string courses, and is probably now of a single order; above is a relieving arch. In the south aisle are an aumbry and a trefoil headed piscina. The chancel arch is early C13 with keeled responds, double chamfered arches with hood moulds having C19 label stops. Above on a ledge in the nave east wall is a C15 rood beam with embattled top and enriched with fleurons. The chancel floor level has been substantially raised in the C19. The lower part of a C13 piscina beneath the eastern window on the south side, and in the south wall at the west end the remains of a blocked C13 2 centred arch are cut by a C16 opening. On the north wall is an aumbry. All fittings are C19 apart from the C15 chalice shaped font which has a fluted octagonal bowl and base. The upper part of the bowl is decorated with battlements above square panels containing cusped triskeles, crosses slatire and blank arcades. Monuments; on the south wall of the chancel, a brass plate to the children of Sir John Wray of Wharton, d.1613 and 1615, in a square moulded stone surround.

Listing NGR: SK8532494803

External Links

• Wikidata Q40110156

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