Church of St Cuthbert

Details

HALSALL HALSALL ROAD SD 31 SE 3/54 Church of St Cuthbert 11-10-1968 GV I

Church. Chancel early C14, nave rebuilt later C14, early C15 tower; restored 1886. Squared sandstone with roofs of stone slate, and of sheet metal to chancel. Comprises a west tower with a south projection built as a grammar school, nave, north and south aisles, chancel, north vestry, and south porch. The tower is broached to an octagon and has a stone spire rebuilt in the C19 with lucarnes. The bell stage has 4 openings, each of 2 lights with a quatrefoil below a flat head. The west window is of 2 lights with tracery under a flat head. The former grammar school, founded by Edward Halsall in 1593, has an embattled parapet, gabled to the south. The west wall is of 2 bays and the south wall of one. The windows are early C19, each of 2 trefoiled lights under a pointed head. In the east wall is a blocked doorway. Above are the worn arms of Halsall and an inscription said to be 'EH 1593' (VCH). The south aisle wall was largely rebuilt in 1886 and is of one bay to the left of the porch and 2 to the right. The windows have trefoiled lights under flat heads with tracery. The gabled porch has a C19 niche below the apex, containing a figure of St Cuthbert. The outer and inner doorways are similar to each other, pointed and of 3 wave-moulded orders. The east window of the aisle is early C14, of 2 lights with tracery under a pointed head. At the junction with the chancel is a projection which contained a rood stair, broached to an octagon with blind tracery decoration and with a crocketed spirelet. To its west is a 3-light early C16 window at clearstorey level. At the ridge of the roof is an octagonal sanctus bellcote. The north aisle wall is of 4 bays, with a further doorway and window to the east serving the vestry. It was rebuilt in 1886 and has windows with flat heads and tracery. The chancel is blind on the north side. The south wall of the chancel is of 3 bays and has moulded pointed 3-light windows with late Decorated tracery repaired in the C19. The 5-light east window is similar in style. Interior: the tall pointed tower arch is moulded in 3 orders, the inner order springing from engaged shafts. The nave arcades are of 4 bays with arches wave-moulded in 2 orders and with octagonal piers. The nave roof was renewed in the C19 and has arch-braced rafters, and a collar plate supported by 2 plain crown posts which rise from tie- beams. At the east end of the south aisle is a piscina. The chancel arch is moulded in 3 orders with engaged shafts. To the north and south dwarf stone walls are linked to late C19 pulpits, the northern one with carved tracery and the southern one within an arched canopy. The north wall of the chancel contains a C19 arch to the organ chamber and a deeply-moulded C14 vestry doorway which has a C14 panelled door with reticulated tracery in the head. To its east is a recess, now containing an early C16 effigy. It is moulded and cusped under a crocketed gable and is flanked by tall crocketed pinnacles which have finials of deeply-cut foliage. In the south wall are C14 triple sedilia and a piscina, with cinquefoiled heads and moulded labels. A painted tomb chest has 2 effigies, said to be Sir Henry Halsall (d.1523) and his wife Margaret. The choir stalls incorporate some C15 woodwork including misericords and bench ends. The stone font has a round C19 bowl with carved quatrefoils, on a moulded stem which is probably C14. The west window of the north aisle and the east window of the south aisle contain fragments of medieval glass.

Listing NGR: SD3705210294

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

357824

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Farrer, W, Brownbill, J, The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, (1914)

End of official list entry

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