This is a small church with a central nave and an aisle on the south side – there are two Gothic arches between the nave and the aisle, both are very plain. The door to the outside is very plain, not very handsome, and painted a dark green. A rustic door is perhaps the best description.
Inside.
The south aisle is floored with old unglazed tiles. There are two arches between the nave and the aisle. On the eastern most pillar of the two arches between the nave and aisle (i.e. near the chancel) the floor has been dug away for a few inches to reveal the base of the column. Current floor level is several inches above the original floor level.
At the east end of the aisle, there is a small Early English Gothic window with two stained glass panels. The upper half of each looks to be original glass with a picture on the left of someone with a musical instrument and on the right, someone with what looks like a dart board. In fact, the musical instrument is an organ and tells us that the saint concerned is St. Cecilia while the “dart board” is actually a wheel which, together with the crown that the saint is wearing, tells us that this is St. Catherine of Alexandria. Above the two saints is a very small crucifix against a blue background. I am told that this stained-glass dates from the fourteenth century.
On the south wall of the aisle there are effigies of two knights. The eastern most one is a very detailed carving but he is missing his legs. His feet are in place and his torso and head. He is wearing chain mail and something over the mail – plated armour by the looks of it. This ‘armour’ is covered in heraldic devices which I cannot quite make out.
Slightly to the west but still against the south wall is a second effigy with one leg in place and a lower leg missing – he is in a twisted position. The carving is not as good as with the other effigy and there is a large piece missing on the breast of the knight. There is no writing on either effigy to indicate who they might be but the second one might be Sir William Disney and the first on his son (but I have no name for him). Both look like they have been repaired at some time.
The roof is wooden and doesn’t look to be that old. – the wood is still rather yellow. There are carvings where the pieces of wood are joined.
The arches between the nave and aisle are very plain. The eastern column has some decoration about two metres up – very plain decoration. The other two are very plain.
At the west end of the nave is a font. This is very plain and octagonal. It is carved from limestone. It has a very large pointed wooden lid and the font itself is lead-lined. There is also a wooden collecting box – a very rustic affair with the legend “Cast one mite into it 1639”
At the west end of the nave is the tower. The entrance to the tower from the nave is an ogee arch. There is a green rustic door between the nave and tower which is locked so I cannot get into it but I can look over it. Inside, there is a smallish window on the west wall, a heavy-duty ladder leading upwards and one single bell-rope hanging down. The tower is clearly used for storage and smells very damp.
Turning around: there is an arch into the chancel – the pillars are circular up to about 7 or 8 feet, topped by a plain Gothic arch. To the north of the chancel arch there is a part where the surface of the wall has been removed revealing a pillar that is now within the wall. This could possibly be the remains of an arch leading into an earlier northern aisle but there is no other indication on the inside that there was one. Pillar details:
Stepping up into the chancel – the chancel floor is composed of memorials one of which is dedicated to Mr William Warren who died on 9th may 1782 aged 62 and also his first wife, Ann. On the left is in Latin: “DOMPM – part missing – Juliani – illegible”.
On the south wall of the chancel, propped against the wall is what appears to be a coffin lid and memorial of a knight – not a life-like carving of a knight but a more-or-less symbolic carving. West of the knight is a small leaded window. Above the knight on the south wall is a lancet window which is plain and to the south of the alter is a plain square window.
Here it is again but vertically:
Behind the alter is a two pane Gothic window – this looks to me like English Decorated Gothic. The alter is a plain wooden table. North of the alter on the chancel wall are four memorials. These are nineteenth century – 1823, 1830, 1837 and 1810. South of the alter on a board in gold script is the Apostle’s Creed.
Back to the nave. North of the nave is a wooden pulpit. This looks to be Victorian. It is very solidly made but is nothing noteworthy. There is a brass lectern presented by CS Dickinson Esq in 1875. This is somewhat corroded but not excessively given the conditions in the church. There is a second lectern, this time of wood, for a bible on the south side of the nave by the chancel arch, complete with a Bible. This Bible was presented to St Peter’s Church, Kingerby by W.W. Nicholl, being the family Bible of his Great-Grandfather, Alexander, Baron of Culraven, Kirkcudbrightshire, dated 1819.
The pews are soft-wood, fairly light coloured and almost certainly Victorian. On the west end of the south wall, there are lists of Rectors, Vicars, Curates and patrons. The church plate has been removed to the Victoria and albert museum in London for safe keeping, but there is a photograph of it here.
The south wall of the nave has a clerestory with two clear-glazed windows. There are some carvings in the roof where the timbers connect. There is also a musical instrument in the south-west corner of the nave – as far as I can tell, this is an harmonium.
There is one window on the north wall – English Decorated Gothic again, I think – which is fairly complex. On the south wall, there is a window with a wooden mullion. This is a very plain window, presumably modern with square glass and no ornamentation.
Outside.
The church would seem to be built from local stone and is quite nicely built. The stones are weathering well – nice dark ironstone. The tower has three stages, buttressed on the corners and with stringers between the stages. The middle stage has one wooden ventilator which is square. The top stage has two ventilators on the south and north walls which are Gothic. The tower roof is not visible and is probably close to flat.
The porch has a Gothic external entrance but the door between the porch and nave looks to be Norman and certainly is not Gothic (a relic from an earlier church?). The outside of the nave and clerestory has been rendered at some point but the aisle wall doesn’t seem to have been.
There is a fairly new pantile roof – late twentieth century at the oldest. There is a shallow pitched roof to the nave but marks on the tower show that the roof used to be much steeper. The older, steeper roofs were usually so because they were shingle, or perhaps thatch which need the steepness to remain rain-proof. When the church was able to move to slate, tiles or lead, the roof would be lowered to reduce the weight of the new covering.
On the north wall of the nave outside there is evidence of arches (See comment about the partial arch inside). There is one arch, a buttress and a second arch, indicating that there was once a north aisle at some point. On the infill of the eastern most arch is the window I mentioned in the description of the interior.
There is little of any note on the outside of the chancel, the south wall of which supports plenty of lichens. At the junction of the chancel and nave there are some indications that the chancel used to be higher with a steeper roof – see my note above about a change in roofing materials.
In the churchyard are a variety of grave memorials. Mostly, these are normal Victorian styles but there are some more interesting ones.
John's Old Churches 