Church of St Wystan Repton, England

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

PARISH OF REPTON WILLINGTON ROAD SK 30/3127 SK 30/3126 6/88 (North Side) 19.1.67 Church of St Wystan GV I

Parish church. C9,C13,C14,C15, restoration 1885-6 by Arthur Blomfield. West steeple, aisled nave and chancel. Coursed rubble sandstone and ashlar. Plain tile and lead roofs. West tower of three unequal stages, divided by moulded stringcourses. Moulded plinth. Angle buttresses. The west elevation has a doorway with moulded mid C14 arch and hoodmould. 3-light Perp window above with castellated transom. Hoodmould on headstops. Small trefoiled lancet above and mid C14 2-light bell openings with transom and ogee hoodmould. The south side has a large circular clockface and similar bell openings. The north side has a small trefoiled lancet and similar bell openings, and again similar bell openings to east. Quatrefoil frieze and castellated parapet, gargoyles and four pinnacles. Octagonal stone spire with three tiers of lucarnes. Lean-to C13 north aisle with moulded parapet. Vestry with parapet, and 3 and 4-light mullioned windows. Angle buttresses and one intermediate buttress. Fenestration from the west. Single chamfered lancet, doorway with colonnettes and moulded arch, early C14 window with Y-tracery, 3-light window of stepped lancet lights and a window with Y-tracery. C15 clerestory with seven 2-light windows of cusped four-centred arches under square heads. Battlemented parapet. North aisle east window of three stepped lancet lights. C13 and early C14 south aisle has an east window of three stepped lancets and a single lancet to the west. C15 two storey gabled porch with moulded doorway. Hoodmould continuing as a stringcourse. Crocketed and pinnacled niche above, flanked by 2-light windows of cusped ogees under a flat arch. Angle buttresses with pinnacles. To the west the staircase projection cuts the aisle window. To the east a 2-light window of cusped lights under a flat arch. To the left of the porch an early C14 window of three lancet lights. To the right of the porch is a similar 4-light window and a window with Y-tracery. To the right again a lean-to south transept chapel with plain moulded parapet, angle buttresses, a chimney in the north west angle, a priest's doorway with moulded arch and a 4-light south window under flat arch with curious cusped lozenge tracery, probably C15. Clerestory as on north side. The chancel is tall and unbuttressed, with the crypt below. The lower walls are of fine masonry, the lowest courses forming a plinth of four steps. On the south side two large blocks project, suggesting an external projection. Rectangular 3-light C16 window to the crypt. Between the lintels of these windows and the sill level of the C14 east window is a section of walling of roughly squared blocks of brown stone with massive flat quoins, unique to Repton. Above this the masonry changes to smaller whitish blocks. Chamfered stringcourse surmounted by lesenes ending in curious splayed capitals just below the eaves. C13 north lancet and a similar C20 south lancet incorporating fragments of a blocked original. 4-light east window of plain lancets. There is a second lancet to the right on the north side. Interior: The Anglo-Saxon crypt is reached by two contemporary staircases from the aisles. The crypt measures about 16ft square and about 10ft high and consists of nine almost square bays roofed with domical vaults carried on cross-ribs which spring from two pilasters on each wall and rest on four-centred columns. The columns have moulded bases, spiral fillets and grooved capitals. The pilasters are decorated with blank arches. Double cornice along the north, south and east walls. Each wall has a shallow recess, which may have housed tombs. That to the west has a cornice and above it, a partly filled-in triangular recess. The south porch has C15 plank doors with wrought iron hinges. Inner doorway with flat arch and moulded surround. C15 plank doors. Flanked by free- standing C9 circular columns with capitals l