Description

BOVINGDON CHURCH STREET TL 0103 (West side) 10/18 Church of - St. Lawrence

GV II*

Parish church. Medieval Dec and Perp, thoroughly restored 1845 by Thomas Talbot Bury FSA so that much of the fabric is of this date. Flint rubble with uncoursed flint facing (coursed on tower) and stone dressings. Old stonework in clunch, C19 work in Bath stone. Steep slated roofs with graduated sizes to chancel. A scholarly Gothic church in local style. Chancel, 5-bays nave with N and S aisles, S porch, embattled W tower with spire, and NE lean-to vestry. Moulded parapets to nave and aisles. 3-stage tower has crocketed corner pinacles. Diagonal corner buttresses. 5-bay aisles with buttresses between windows. S porch has puddingstone as well as flint in its S gable. Pointed arch of 2 chamfered orders closed by iron gates. Lockers as seats in porch. Continuously moulded S door with pointed arch and battened door with decorative iron hinges. 4 S-aisle windows have unusual saltire tracery with trefoil cusping. Other windows either re-used (W window of N aisle) or follow previous form. 3-light pointed Dec W window has mullions renewed. Square hoodmould renewed of Perp arched doorway with spandrels. Moulded base course of tower original as well as of buttresses to aisles, but offsets in Bath stone. Clunch quoins and string course to nave presumably original. Only clunch buttresses of porch remain and bonding stones to S aisle. Segmental arched recess in tower for knight's effigy now in nave. 'A.B.S.R' on gilded bosses of tower ceiling. York stone slab floor to church. Tower arch of 2 chamfered orders 5 bays nave with low-pitched boarded roof with moulded purlins, ridge, wallplates, tie-beams and wallposts off stone corbels. 2 order chamfered C14 style pointed arcade with chamfered upright panel central to each pier as if it were 2 piers back-to-back. Octagonal moulded bell-caps and roll-moulded bases.Moulded string course below sills of 2-light trefoil clerestorey windows. Painted inscriptions on labels over tower and chancel arches. Pine pews with doors and fine carved poppy heads down central aisle. 2-light stained glass window 1874 to Isobel Cator at W end of S aisle. 1855 wall monument to Henry Stewart Ryder by R. Brown of London, a soldier leaning on a Gothic sarcophogus surmounted by a cross. White marble with pointed head and slate border. Chest tomb at S side of chancel arch with effigy in stone of a knight of c.1370 with fragments of painting, pointed basinet, plate armour and chain mail gorge. Hands in prayer. Wall monuments to Ryder family of Westbrook Hay. Chancel floored in Belgian marble C17 inscribed slabs, some with brass plates, 1605 '-UM BEARAT', Andrew Mayne d.1621. Commandments and painted scrolls flank 3-light stained glass E window by Lavers 1856 designed by the painter Charles West Cope (Pevsner). Long gothic arcaded memorial tablet on N wall of chancel in memory of Lady Georgiana Ryder, 3rd daughter of 6th Duke of Beaufort 1800-65 and Hon. Granville Dudley Ryder d.1879 who was a local benefactor, through whose efforts the church was restored. Chancel roof of 2 bays with half-bays each end. Arch braced steep roof with moulded purlins, ridge, wallplates, and wallposts off stone corbels. 3 benefaction boards in N aisle. Stained glass window in N aisle to Thomas Talbot Bury d.23 Feb 1877, the architect for the restoration. Octagonal panelled font with instrument of the Passion. Coloured perspective in vestry inscribed 'Bovingdon Church as restored by T. Talbot Bury FSA'. (RCHM(1911)66 no.2: Kelly (1914)69: Pevsner (1977)107).

Listing NGR: TL0171703717

External Links

• Wikidata Q17542785

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