Church of St Simon and St Jude Earl Shilton, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

SP 49 NE TOWN OF HINCKLEY ALMEY'S LANE (south side) 11/42 Earl Shilton

8.3.63 Church of St. Simon and St. Jude

II*

Parish church. Rebuilt 1855-6 by Slater and Carpenter except for the C15 west tower. Random rubble with freestone dressings; plain tile roof with stone coped verges. West tower, 6-bay nave with aisles and north and south porches, 2-bay chancel with north vestry. 3 stage west tower with moulded plinth, offsets and hollow chamfered string beneath a crenellated parapet with continuous moulded coping. Clasping buttresses to the first 2 stages with diagonal buttresses above (c.f. Church of St. Mary, Barwell c.p.). Y-traceried west window with cinquefoil cusping and 4-centred arch; the belfry lights are in a similar style and there is a quatrefoil shaped loop to each face of the second stage. Recessed stone spire of octagonal section with one tier of lucarnes; 2 trefoil-headed lights with quatrefoil in the spandrel beneath a tall triangular arch with crocketed hood mould. Nave and aisles: 2-centred 2-light windows with decorated tracery and scroll-moulded hoods with block stops; buttresses at the bay divisions. Chancel: 5-light east window with a network of intersecting tracery incorporating geometrical motifs. Interior: 5-bay nave arcades carried beyond the chancel arch for a further 2 bays; pointed arches of 2 wave-moulded orders spring from clusters of 4 cylindrical shafts with moulded bases and capitals. Towards the nave the arcade spandrels are painted with stars, crosses and lozenges; around the arches are trailing leaves and there is a frieze of quatrefoils at roof level. C15 tower arch with outer wave-moulded surround and an inner chamfered arch springing from semi-octagonal engaged columns with moulded capitals. 2-centred chancel arch of 2 wave-moulded orders on engaged half columns like those of the nave; hood mould ending in moulded corbels. At the east end of each aisle is a pointed archway; the right hand one gives access to a chapel, and beyond the left hand one is the organ chamber. Arch-braced collar roof over the nave with braces springing from short posts on stone corbels. Over the aisles are simpler straight-braced collar roofs. Panelled chancel roof painted with flowers, stars and foliage, done by the Vicar F.E. Tower, father of Kempe'spartner Tower. Fixtures and fittings: The lower part of the tower arch is infilled with a wooden screen and above this is a bell ringers' gallery. At the west end of the south aisle is a tablet recording donations to the church by Sir Varney Noel in 1676 and by Henry Noel Esq. in 1694. Simple stone font comprising a cylindrical basin on a squat octagonal pedestal; C19 conical font cover. Medieval parish chest bound by strap hinges. C19 pine bench pews. Pulpit of 1901; octagonal stone base and wooden superstructure with brass angle shafts. Good quality priests stalls of 1939 with linen fold panels and poppy heads, and choir stalls in the same style in memory of those who died in the Second World War. Early to mid-C20 linen fold panelling around the walls of the santuary, and altar of the same style and date. Stained glass by Kempe and Co.; south chapel, east of 1919; south aisle, second and third from east of 1928; north aisle second from east of 1934. B.O.E. p. 147.

Listing NGR: SP4711698198