Great Sturton

Location

Great Sturton is a tiny hamlet in the sparsely populated Wolds, just a few miles to the north of Horncastle.  Like many Wolds churches, the parish church of All Saints, was originally built in the twelfth and thirteenth century, when the population of the Wolds was considerably greater.  As the population declined the building was gradually reduced in size and its exterior and interior walls show evidence of a lost north aisle, a west tower and the truncation of the chancel. 



Long neglected, the church was restored in 1904 by J T Micklethwaite.  It was a sympathetic restoration and Micklethwaite retained the wonderful exterior texture of greenstone, ironstone and brick infill and blended his new furnishings with the old.  He added some new and inobtrusive windows to the mix of existing medieval and post medieval windows.   



You enter the church through a tiny brick porch sheltering a Norman door into a spacious nave.  The west end of the church is taken up with the enormous and impressive frame of the Micklethwaite'e tiny bellcote, which he built from reused timbers probably brought from elsewhere.  On the north wall within this framework are the remains of an early seventeenth century mural painting supposed to represent Time and Death.  The figure of Death (a larger than life skeleton) is obvious, but the rest is fairly uninteligible.



The north arcade is exposed and on the mouldings of one arch arch are the substantial remains of attractive medieval painted decoration.  Sadly the interior of the nave is rather marred with radial heaters and pendant lights, suspended from the flat traceried ceiling.



A thirteenth century chancel arch with keel-moulded responds admits to the chancel.  There are commandment boards to either side of the east window and in the north wall a cusped niche, partly cut off when the chancel was shortened.  Next to the chancel arch is a plain marble tablet to William Settle, who came to Sturton as vicar in 1796 and died, still in post, in 1848 - a reminder that change comes slowly to these remote Wolds settlements.  



Access: There is plenty of roadside parking and the church is kept open.

If you want to see some more photos of Great Sturton have look at my Flickr set.

Kingerby

Location

Situated along a seckuded back road, a few miles west of the Wolds, Kingerby is a forgotten place.   The church long neglected and disused has been redundant since 1980, but thankfully is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, who have lovingly restored it.   It is a wonderfully textured and weathered building, mostly built of ironstone with pantiled roofs and a fine array of furnishings that would be the envy of many churches. 



You pass through a rather rustic porch, the jambs of the opening incorporating a bit of Early English dogtooth, into the south aisle.  There is an Early English south arcade and evidence of the existence of a similar north arcade built into the north wall of the nave.  The nave has a charming seventeenth century roof constructed from earlier reclaimed timbers.  In the north aisle is a poor box, roughly carved from a log and inscribed: 'THIS IS GODS TREASURY / CAST ONE MITE INTO IT 1639' . 



Recesses and a bracket below the east window of the south aisle hint at the position of a medieval altar and in the window above is a considerable quantity of medieval glass.  This fourteenth century glass includes a crucifixion in the tracery and in the main lights, under canopies, figures of St Cecilia and St Katherine. The latter holds a martyrs palm and her attribute the wheel, which rather amusingly looks for all the world like a dartboard.   



There are monuments: in the south aisle two rather battered fourteenth century effigies are believed to commemorate members of the Disney family of Norton Disney, who held the manor of Kingerby.  The effigies were formerly in the long vanished north aisle.  In the chancel is a further Disney memorial, a large coffin lid carved with a cross and the demi-effigy of a man under a canopy.  The stone is difficult to see as it is propped up at floor level against the south wall of the chancel.   On the north wall of the chancel are some fairly pleasant nineteenth cnetury tablets to the Youngs, a recusant local family and beneath them are a couple of old traceried bench ends incorporated into a kneeling desk. 



The floors of rough stone and Lincolnshire sets adds to the atmosphere.  If you are in this part of the county this is not a church to be missed. 

Access: There is plenty of roadside parking here and you will find the church unlocked.

If you want to see some more photos of Kingerby have a look at my Flickr set.

Kettlethorpe

Location

Kettlethorpe has a strong assocation with Katherine Swynford, mistress and later third wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the son of King Edward III.  Katherine and John had a brood of children our of wedlock who were given the surname Beaufort. It was through Katherine's grandaughter Margaret Beaufort and her claim to the throne that her son Henry Tudor became Henry VII. Katherine Swynford's first husband, Sir Hugh Swynford, was lord of the manor of Kettlethorpe and Katherine spent the years up to her marriage to John of Gaunt at the hall here. 



Although there is a good exhibition in the church regarding the Swynford connection, nothing now remains of the church Katherine would have known.  A reused fifteenth century corbel, an angel holding the royal arms of England, is the sole reminder of this illustrious connection with the Plantagenet royal house.  Of the rest of the building, which is approached by a fine yew avenue, there is little now that is medieval. The tower of the church is restored Perpendicular, but the remainder of the building is nineteenth century.  The nave of yellow brick with an iron north arcade, dates from 1840-5 and the rest of the church was heavilt restored by Herbert Kirk in 1896.

 

Inside there are some minor eighteenth century tablets and in the sanctuary a tablet with a punning inscription, to John Becke a rector who died in 1597.  In the chancel is also the extraordinary black oak pulpit. It is French seventeenth century and was brought to Kettlethorpe in the 1920s by Emily Cracroft-Amcotts the lady of the manor, who bought it in an antique shop in Brittany.  When she bought it was covered in whitewash, but it was cleaned off by being immersed in a French river for a week.  The panels are carved with scenes of Christ's passion.



Access: The church is kept open during daylight hours.  There is ample parking outside the church gate.

 If you want to see some more photos of Kettlethorpe have a look at my Flickr set.

Kelstern

Location

St Faith's in Kelstern is in a picturesque location on the edge of the hillside overlooking the Wolds.  You approach the church along a grass track which runs past Kelstern hall and between earthworks of the shrunken village. 



The church is what you might describe as country Anglo-Catholic and has evidently been much loved in times past, but is now somewhat forlorn, damp and grubby.   However, despite the feeling of neglect there is much of interest to see. 



The first thing that faces you as you enter through the north door of the nave, is the alabaster monument of Elizabeth South, placed in the blocked south door.   Dame Elizabeth, the young wife of Sir Francis South of Kelstern and a daughter of Sir John Meres of Aubourn, died in 1604.  Her monument, formerly in the chancel, shows her sat up in a chair with an hourglass in her hand and her foot resting on a skull.  Beside her are two putti, one extinguishing a torch on top of a skull and the other with his foot on a shovel as though digging her grave.  The latter has his foot on a plinth inscribed 'Non Sine Labore' 'Nothing Without Labour', the former on the plinth inscribed 'in alto requies' 'bestow rest upon them'.  The whole thing is a touching memento mori erected by a bereft husband.  Sir Francis would suffer loss again for on the north wall is a plainer tablet to his second wife, Dame Anne, who died in 1620.



In the nave of the church are three glorious windows by Sir Ninian Comper, commissioned between 1954 and 1958 by the Sleight family, baronets of Weelsby Hall in Grimsby and of Binbrook Hall in Kelstern parish.  One window, with images of St Andrew, St Faith and St George, commemorates Sir George Sleight, first baronet.  Another, with a lovely Annunciation scene is in memory of his wife Rebecca Sleight, who as if to connect her with the South monuments is described, somewhat quaintly, as 'Dame' Rebecca. Sir George was a self made man who rose from being a cockle gatherer on Cleethorpes beach, to owning the biggest fishing fleet in the world based in Grimsby.  He and Lady Sleight are buried in the churchyard.



What else is there?  Well there are remains of medieval stained glass, including a wonderful fourteenth century frontal head of Christ in a tracery light and at the west end of the nave there are a number of medieval benchends. These are rather rustic and fun, with carved with that old rogue Reynard the Fox with a goose in his mouth and another with a scene of a fox chasing a hound. 



It's worth having a wander around the churchyard, if nothing else to enjoy the wonderful views. 


Access: Parking is in the field at the end of the track. There is no named keyholder and the church is locked, but if you are keen you may like to send me a message for more information on access. 

 If you want to see some more photos of Kelstern look on the Flickr set.

Hainton

Location

Hainton is one of those rare places, a manor that has been in the possession of a single family for much of its recorded the history.  The church of St Mary stands in the grounds of Hainton Hall, which was and still is the home of the Heneage family.  The chancel and north chapel contain an unparelleled and virtually unbroken sequence of family monuments dating from the fifteenth century. 



The earliest Heneage monument are the brasses to John Heneage (died 1435) a and his wife Alice on the chapel floor.  John, who is portrayed in civilian dress, was a yeoman and it was he that managed to acquire a share of the manor of Hainton that established the family in Hainton. The family fortunes were further bolstered in the early sixteenth century when the family profitted from the acquisition of former monastic lands.  It is interesting that although they benefitted from the monastic pillage of the 1530s, the family remained recusants, resolutely devoted to the old faith. 



The impressive later sixteenth century monuments at the west end of the chapel, to John Heneage (died 1559) and his sons William died (1610) and George (died 1595) are evidence of this new found wealth. William's monument, showing him and his wives kneeling at prayer has a two little panels on the top showing the Fall, with Adam and Eve standing next to the Tree of Knowledge and the resurrection of Christ.



George Heneage is commemorated by a particularly lavish monument, a freestanding tomb chest with a painted alabaster effigy showing him an full armour lying on a rolled-up mat.


The east end of the chapel has later monuments.  One is a tablet by William Stanton commemorating grandfather, son and grandson, all called George. It is topped by a flaming urn and incorporates garlands and skulls and crossbones.  Next to it is the wall monument to great grandson also called George Heneage (died 1731) by Bertucinni.  His his bust set under a canopy with swags and his wives (both of good recusant families) are commemorated by busts flanking his and separate little tablets. 



With such an impressive array of monuments you almost forget about the church itself.  The bottom of the tower is early Norman, but the rest of church is essentially by E J Willson who made all things new sometime between 1847 and 1848.  Willson, who is buried in the churchyard, was a close friend of A W Pugin and the building is Puginian in its archaeological correctness. 

Access: The main body of the church is kept open, but the Heneage chapel is locked. There is plenty of roadside parking. 

For more images from Hainton, have a look in my Flickr set

North Owersby

Location



St Martin's is not a particularly exciting church building.  Built in 1762-3 by J. Warner of Caistor using medieval masonry, externally it is plain, pedestrian, but pleasant.  Inside its white painted interior with apsidal east end, is sparse, forlorn and filthy.  Sadly all the eighteenth century furnishings, except the bird bath font, were removed in a restoration of 1888.         



Access: The church is kept open during daylight hours.  There is plenty of roadside parking. 

 If you want to see some more photos of North Owersby look at my Flickr set.

Normanby-by-Spital

Location



St Peter's in Normaby-by-Spital is not a great repository of monuments or a building of great atmosphere, it is a fairly straightforward sort of church.  Externally the earliest part of the church appears to be the lower stage of the west tower, which looks Norman.  I'm not convinced by Pevsner's designation of the tower as Early English. Externally the rest of the church appears to be Decorated and I suspect the rather short chancel has been truncated at some point, perhaps in Goddard's restoration in 1890.





Internally the most impressive feature is the fine north arcade, a late Norman masterpiece and worth travelling some distance to see.  Its glorious capitals have moukded square abaci decorated with glorious curling, serrated crockets and are set on sturdy pillars.  The south arcade is later, Early English, the capitals decorated with rather crude stiff-leaf.



There is little else to see, except for one or two nineteenth century tablets and font formed from a medieval kitchen mortar.  The church was declared redundant in 1975 and is now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust

Access: The church is kept open during daylight hours.  There is ample parking by the roadside.

 If you want to see some more photos of Normanby look in my Flickr set.

Aubourn

Location




Nestling close to the glorious late Elizabethan Aubourn Hall, Aubourn 'Old Church' is just a fragment of a much larger medieval building.  In 1862 a new parish church was built to the west of the village and most of the medieval church was demolished, leaving the chancel standing as a mortuary chapel.  The shape of the lost portions of he church are marked out in the grass.  In a strange quirk of fate St Peter's was made redundant in 1973 and all but the chancel demolished and the medieval chancel of the 'Old Church' became the parish church once more. 



There is much of interest crammed into this tiny thirteenth century chancel.  On the north wall are the remains of an alabaster monument to Sir Anthony Meres who died in 1587, his damaged kneeling figure propped on top of his coat of arms.  The monument was found in pieces in the demolished tower.  In the same north east corner are monuments to Sir Anthony's descendants, the Nevilles, who still live in the hall.  Elizabeth Neville, who died in 1745, has a lovely marble monument incorporating a medallion with her head in profile.  Next to it is a tablet in memory of Sir Christopher Neville, who died 1692, with cherubs and all the usual baroque flummeries.  



The floor is made up of Neville ledger slabs, there are Neville hatchments, a royal arms of George II (1733), a balustered Georgian altar rails, a Perpendicular font and a west gallery with delightful little chamber organ.  All combine to make a very memorable little building.  



Access:  The church is open during daylight hours.  Acess is on foot, via a footpath approximately 100 yards west of the entrance gates of Aubourn Hall.  The path takes you directly in front of the hall. Park with caution by the roadside. 

If you want to see some more photos of Aubourn look in my Flickr set.