Church of St Lawrence Lechlade, England

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

SU 2199 LECHLADE MARKET PLACE (east side)

10/180 Church of St. Lawrence

26.11.58

GV I Anglican parish church. C13 foundation, completely rebuilt mid/late C15, with clerestorey and north porch of early C16, restored 1882 by Waller. Coursed and dressed Taynton stone, roofs not visible. West tower with spire, nave with clerestorey and 4- bay aisles, north porch, north and south chancel chapels of one bay at end of aisles, chancel with north vestry. Tower of 3 stages with offsets, large stepped diagonal buttresses with angle pinnacles, embattled parapet, 8-sided spire with roll mouldings at edges and gilt weathervane. Top stage has 2-light belfry openings with continuous hood and dripmould and stringcourse over with carved heads. Clockface to west with 3-light Perpendicular window below with angel and shield at top of hoodmould over arched splayed doorway with roll mouldings. Embattled nave parapet with straight headed 4-light cusped clerestorey windows and sanctus bellcote to east gable. Aisles and chancel chapels have plain parapets and 3- light windows with 2 vertical drops over. North porch has embattled parapet with pinnacles and carved figures along base, square-headed dorway with carved stops, flat stone ceiling with star rib pattern. South doorway in similar style with square hoodmould with carved square stops and foliage spandrels. ChanceL has pierced quatrefoil parapet in 2 rows set in lozenges and circles, and 5-light east window in 2 tiers with flattened cusped ogees with mouchettes to each light, in overall flattened arch shape. Single storey north vestry has similar pierced parapet to east. Interior: Nave rafter roof of early C16 on central ridge, of 4 bays with braced cross beams carried on wooden shafts to base of clerestorey windows. Five-bay arcade including chancel chapels with piers of 4 shafts and diagonally set square capitals. ChanceL roof similar structure to nave, in 3 main bays each sub-divided into 3 with gilded and painted bosses in easternmost bay, Vestry door on north side is original with carved decoration. Piscina and credence shelf in south east corner, rest of wall panelled in style of reredos of 1897. C15 octagonal font at west end with canopied niche over in pier of arcade. Several fine medieval brasses at east end and also marble monuments including one by Nicholas Read to Mrs Anne Simmons (died 1769) on south side of chancel. (David Verey, Buildings of England - Gloucestershire: the Cotswolds, 1979.)

Listing NGR: SU2149399507