HIGHAM FERRERS HUNDRED 



STANWICK 



width of the nave was about 2 1 ft., but at what period 

 the aisle and its arcade were removed is unknown. 

 In the existing wall are a blocked i3th<entury door- 

 way and three 15th-century windows, but it seems 

 most likely that the aisle was pulled down and the 

 present wall erected in 1664, which date, with the 

 initials r. s., is on a panel above the doorway,' which is 

 the old one re-used. The windows of the aisle were 

 also incorporated in the new wall. The chancel was 

 again largely rebuilt in 1823, the old windows being 

 retained, and an extensive restoration of the fabric was 

 carried out in 1855-6.^ 



With the exception of the chancel the building is of 

 nibble and has battlemented parapets throughout. The 

 high-pitched roof of the nave is covered with Colley- 

 weston slates, but the chancel and aisle roofs are leaded. 

 There is no clerestory. 



The chancel is of two bays, faced with coursed 

 dressed stones and has a 15th-century east window of 

 four cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery, and one of 

 three lights at the west end of the south wall: the 

 eastern bay is blank and the priest's doorway is a 

 renewal. Part of the old north wall remains, with a 

 window jarab at its east end, but no ancient ritual 

 arrangements had survived.^ The chancel arch is of 

 two chamfered orders, the inner springing from half- 

 octagonal responds with moulded capitals and bases. 

 The arch is four-centred and the labels differ, that 

 facing west having a big indented moulding and the 

 other a large nail-head, the explanation probably being 

 that a late-i2th<entury arch was reconstructed in the 

 13th and again in the i 5th century, at the enlargement 

 and at the rebuilding of the chancel. On the north side 

 of the opening facing east is a beautiful 13th-century 

 niche, or stall, with a rounded trefoiled head of two 

 moulded orders, the inner resting on shafts with 

 moulded capitals and bases: the cusping has foliated 

 terminations.'* 



The nave arcade is of three bays, with arches of two 

 chamfered orders on 1 3th-century piers composed of 

 four clustered shafts with moulded capitals and cham- 

 fered bases and responds of like character. The arches 

 are four-centred, but having hood-moulds of distinctly 

 13th-century character have been considered contem- 

 porar)' with the piers:' it is not unlikely, however, that 

 the arcade was rebuilt in the i 5th century with careful 

 re-use of the old material and the shape of the arches 

 altered. The upper doorway* of the rood-loft remains 

 at the east end of the arcade. The three pointed 1 5th- 

 century windows of the nave arc each of three lights 

 with quatrefoil tracery and are set high in the wall, with 

 a portion of moulded string below the sills inside. The 

 north doorway is of two unmoulded orders, with plain 

 jambs and hood-mould, but the double chamfered 

 impost, which is a continuation of the external string, 

 belongs to the period of rebuilding. The roofs of the 

 nave and aisle are modern.' In the south wall of the 

 aisle are two four-centred three-light windows with 



* The panel appears to be contemporary 

 with the walhng on either side and below it. 



* A west gallery, erected by the Rev. 

 Dcnison Cumberland, rector i7Ji-57, 

 was then taken down; it was 'done in 

 Doric woodwork' and obstructed the 

 tower arch. The church was reopened 

 after restoration i6 September 1856. 

 The organ-chamber was added at this time, 

 on the west of an earlier vestry. 



^ A 'railing, screen Sc entablature upon 

 tlircc-quarter columns' (i.e. a rercdos). 



erected by the Rev. Denison Cumberland, 

 have been removed. 



' The stall is probably in its original 

 position, but the chancel has been so much 

 altered that there is some uncertainty. 



» Cii. jirckd. K'lon, 48. 



' It is square-headed and pierces the wall. 



' The nave roof was restored to its 

 original pitch in 1856, before which it had 

 been so much lowered that the top of the 

 tower arch appeared above it : Cii. /irchJ. 

 A"/oif, 48. 



vertical tracery, but the square-headed east window is 

 of two lights. In the usual position south of the aisle 

 altar is a 1 3th-century double piscina, with plain cham- 

 fered arches on small shafts with moulded capitals and 

 bases: one of the bowls is plain and the other fluted. 

 The 13th-century south doorway is of two chamfered 

 orders, the outer on shafts with moulded bases, and the 

 inner continued down the jambs below moulded im- 

 posts: the capital of the shaft on the west side is moulded, 

 the other foliated. The 1 3th-century outer doorway of 

 the porch is of two chamfered orders on half-round 

 responds with moulded capitals and bases, and label 

 with a headstop on one side and on the other a beautiful 

 leaf-scroll corbel: the trefoiled side windows appear to 

 be 14th-century insertions. The porch has a battle- 

 mented low-pitched gable and restored square-headed 

 two-light window to the chamber, access to which 

 is given by a vice in the north-west corner, entered 

 from the aisle by a modern doorway:' there is an older 

 blocked doorway in the aisle wall farther west, which 

 was probably the original entrance. The 14th-century 

 west window of the aisle is square-headed and of two 

 trefoiled lights. 



The treatment of the tower is very unusual. It is 

 octagonal in plan from the base, with flat clasping but- 

 tresses at the angles, but is so contrived on the east side 

 that 'a square surface is presented to the body of the 

 church','' the angles being occupied at different levels 

 by vices, or circular stairways, to the bell-chamber. 

 The lower stair, in the south-east angle, does not go 

 higher than the roof of the aisle, to which it gives access, 

 but from this level a stepped passage in the thickness of 

 the wall is taken across the tower arch to the upper 

 stair in the north-east angle, which is carried up as an 

 engaged turret nearly the full height of the upper stage, 

 and opens to the bell-chamber by an elegant pointed 

 arch springing from moulded corbels. The tower has a 

 well-moulded plinth with a scroll-moulding as its upper 

 member, and over this a keel-shaped string, both of 

 which are taken round the buttresses. The west 

 window is a single lancet of three chamfered orders, 

 widely splayed inside, with a pointed chamfered rear- 

 arch of two orders springing from double shafts, the 

 capitals of which on the north side are foliated and on 

 the south moulded. Above the window is an octofoil 

 opening splayed to a circle within, but the lower stages 

 on the north and south and canted western sides are 

 blank, except for a small single lancet high in the south 

 wall. The arch opening to the nave is of three cham- 

 fered orders on the east side, continued to the ground 

 below moulded imposts. The upper, or bell-chamber 

 stage, which is slightly set back, consists of an arcade of 

 chamfered semicircular arches resting on groups of 

 clustered shafts with moulded capitals and bases, those 

 on the cardinal faces being pierced with two lancets 

 with clustered mid-shafts'" and quatrefoils in the heads. 

 On the alternate faces there are two blind-pointed 

 arches with mid-corbel, and over all is a trefoiled corbel- 



' The chamber, which measures intern- 

 ally 9 ft. 6 in. by 8 ft. 6 in. was 'discovered', 

 or opened out, about 1848. The cuspings 

 of the window had then gone : ibid. 48, 50. 



• Cki. ArcliJ. N'ton, 44. 'Two 

 squinches necessary for the conversion of 

 the square into an octagon abut on the 

 tower arch, and above them at the same 

 relative position in the angles are the com- 

 mencement of groining ribs' : ibid. 46. 



'" Except on the east side, where the 

 shaft is octagonal. 



53 



