Description

BLANKNEY MAIN STREET TF 0660 and TF 05 NE (east side) 7/3 and 5/3 Church of St Oswald 1.2.67

GV II*

Parish Church. C12, C13, C15 west tower rebuilt 1805-7, restored c1820 and restored 1879-81 by Carpenter and Ingelow. Coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings. Plain tile and slate roofs, with ashlar coped gables with moulded kneelers and finials. Angle buttresses with set-offs. Moulded ashlar eaves cornice with down- pipe brackets. West tower, nave and aisles, chancel with north chantry chapel, and south porch. Three stage, west tower has thin clasping gabled buttresses, chamfered ashlar plinth and moulded quatrefoil band. West face has a narrow pointed 2-light window with reticulated tracery, above a pair of pointed 2-light windows with simpler reticulated tracery, and above again a pair of similar bell openings also under a single ogee hood which rises to a central pinnacle. The north and south faces have blank first and second stages, with the third stage identical to the east and west faces. The tower is topped by cusped battlements and 8 crocketted pinnacles. Attached to the south face is an octagonal stair turret with a pointed, moulded and chamfered arched doorway, and above cusped lancets and a band of quatrefoil, and topped by copped battlements. The north aisle, west wall has a single pointed arched, chamfered lancet, and the north wall has three, 2-light pointed arched windows, in double chamfered surrounds with trefoil tracery, and a small pointed arched doorway to the east. The chantry chapel has a quatrefoil parapet, and two large gargoyles with a low segment headed doorway, with a C19 studded door in a moulded chamfered surround. Above, three 2-light panel tracery windows in chamfered surrounds with segment heads. The east wall has a shallow pointed arched 3-light window with panel tracery in a moulded chamfered surround. The chancel east wall has a large pointed arched 3-light window with intersecting tracery in a chamfered surround. The chancel south wall has 3 pointed lancets in chamfered surrounds, and to the west a tall ashlar stack with an octagonal pinnacle top. The south aisle has three, 2-light intersecting tracery windows in chamfered surrounds on the south wall, and a single chamfered lancet to the west. The gabled south porch has diagonal buttresses, a coped gable and cross finial. The outer archway, has a shallow arched opening with shafts and a moulded chamfered arch. The inner doorway has a double, roll moulded, pointed arch, and the porch has stone benches. Interior: 3 bay nave arcades with double chamfered pointed arches, octagonal piers and responds with moulded capitals, and stone seats around the pier bases. Tall C19 double chamfered tower arch. Double chamfered pointed chancel arch, north aisle arch and two similar chancel arches into the chantry chapel, all with octagonal piers and responds and moulded capitals and bases. The north aisle arch is also decorated with dogtooth. Heavily restored double arched sedilia with circular shaft. Fine, mid C18 wooden carved lecturn. Unusual praying desk, made from C18 table legs. C19 wooden roofs, pulpit, choir stalls and pews. 12 ornate C19 iron candelabra. Elaborate wooden reredos c1900 carved, painted and gilded. Chantry chapel contains a large Gothick style monument with marble relief of mourning lady to Lady Florence Chaplin, 1851. Small mandala-shaped wall tablet to Caroline Chaplin. North aisle has a small alabaster and bronze First World War memorial tablet.

Listing NGR: TF0682660003

External Links

• Wikidata Q17549181

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Recommended Books

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas