Description

SK 80 NE EGLETON CHURCH ROAD 7/24 Church of St. Edmund 14.6.54 I

Small parish church, basically norman though enlarged and subsequently reduced again in size later. West tower with short spire, nave with clerestory, and chancel. Tower rebuilt late C18. Ashlar, 3 stages with round-arched lights to bell chamber. Parapet, corner pinnacles and spire. In the west wall a C14 traceried window with hoodmould and corbel heads survives. Nave of ironstone rubble with paler sandstone dressings, including quoins and a sill course. Very low pitchedunparapetted roof. Section of line of original roof visible as sandstone string course at springing of arches for present windows. C14 south porch with ogee arched doorway and a worn sundial above it. Rubble stone chancel with ashlar parapet and a tiny priests door. East wall of chancel is of dressed stone in bands, and there is some banding also to the north wall, which also contains some ashlar work and is very irregular in build.

North side of nave is buttressed and shows early C14 arcade infilled with ashlar. Line of original roof, and possible beam ends of this roof between the arcade arches.

The south door is C12, exuberantly and copiously carved, basket work and intolace to the shafts, decorated capitals and abaci and a very lively and richly carved tynpanum, within an arch supported on two beasts heads where 2 winged creatures support a wheel-like emblem with 6 petal-like spokes. Inside, the chancel arch is in a similarly vigorous style, the arch itself, a simple double chamfered semi-circule, perhaps later, but the shafts, capitals and abaci again ornate with basket weave, foliate interlace, beading etc., each side different.

The west tower arch is blocked, triple chamfered like the blocked north arcade. Internal face of S. door is tall, narrow and plain. South windows are large, C15, with double ranks of foiled lights. A single clerestory window above. North wall has 3-light C15 windows in the blocking of the arcade, and 4 clerestory windows above, in angular surrounds. Between the windows, crudely carved grotesques represent the corbels of the original roof, beasts and human figures. Door to rood, and squint survive in east wall of nave, and over the chancel arch are painted the arms of George III and a single surviving figure (Moses or Aaron?). Chancel windows are large and C15, those on north differing from those on south, and from each other. East window contains stained glass of 1875.

Various Cl8 wall tombstones in chancel. The C13 font is square on central and 4 corner shafts, C11 chamfered. A low relief cross or rosette adorns each side, and slight pilasters mark the angles. Against the blocked west tower opening, part of a C15 wood screen survives with paired lights, an ogee arched doorway, and traceried panels. 4 old bench ends also survive but the church was reseated in 1875. Painted boards of the Commandments 'Our Father' and 'Creed' in porch.

Listing NGR: SK8759407535

External Links

• Church of St Edmund at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17529479

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

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990