St Etheldreda is a rare dedication outside of East Anglia and suggests an earlier Anglo-Saxon church. The chancel and central tower of the present church are relicts of a late Norman building, as is the piscina with zigzag ornament and on the north wall the round-headed aumbry. The arches of the tower underwent modification in the C13 when tomb recesses were added to both north and south walls. Late in the C13 the nave was rebuilt, it has three early English doorways and tall four bay aisles, with alternating round and octagonal piers. The grand scale of the church may reflect the influence of the wealth of Lincoln Cathedral. c.1320 a clerestory was built, the south aisle enlarged and a south porch constructed. Windows in the south aisle are in the Decorated style as are the chancel windows, although they show later restoration. The north aisle and wall were rebuilt in the C15, though the doorway was retained and the west window renewed in the C17. William Weir restored the church in 1915. The 1836 pulpit was illustrated in 1950 with scenes from the life of St Etheldreda. An elaborate screen and rood loft is the work of Lawrence Dale 1947-50 and near the south door is an C18 organ. In the north aisle a C15 St Christopher towers over tiny fisherman and swirling fishes, one of the largest depictions of this saint in the country. An inscription reads ‘What art thou so young? Bore I never so heavy a thing’, ‘Yea, I be heavy no wonder (not) is for I am the King of Bliss’. The westernmost north nave pillar has a painting of St Sitha or Zita of Lucca with rosary, keys, bellows and a pipkin or three-legged cooking pot. Late C15 she is the patron saint of maids and the finder of lost keys. The other pillars also had figures, but these are lost. There is also a panel of ‘T’ roundels which may have been associated with a shrine to St Thomas of Canterbury, In the south aisle a carved stone panel may be part of a C15 tomb. Brass matrix under the tower c1500 and two stained glass donor figures Henry Rumworth, Archdeacon of Canterbury 1416-20 and his successor Robert Gilbert 1420-26.
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Posted by bwthornton on 2016-02-23 12:38:00
Tagged: , Horley , Oxfordshire , St Etheldreda , St Christopher , St Sitha , St Zita of Lucca , Wall Paintings , Norman , churches , church crawling , architecture , history , English villages , England , travel , tourism , Medieval
