St. Lawrence's Church Whitwell – Part 1

 

A detail of the south elevation of the tower

Approaching St. Lawrence’s church, although I had been in Whitwell for less than 40 minutes, I had already acquired a good appreciation of its geology and building stones when briefly exploring the snickets between Portland Street and Butt Hill and photographing the historic architecture when walking up High Street. 

 

A view of the east end St. Lawrence's church

 

From a distance, I could see that the east wall of the chancel is built with cream coloured dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation, which I had noted in the ashlar masonry of the old George Inn and in various retaining and boundary walls around the village. 

 

A general view of St. Lawrence's church

 

Crossing over the road, I took a couple of photos from Scotland Street that show the architectural elements of the south elevation, essentially consisting of a Norman tower, nave and chancel, a Decorated Gothic style transept, porch and enlarged aisle dating to c.1300-1350 and a few late additions and alterations - with the church being fully restored by John Loughborough Pearson in 1886, who also designed the old rectory (1885) across the road.

 

A general view of St. Lawrence's church from Scotland Street

 

As a geologist with specialist interests in building stones, from a distance I immediately noticed that the masonry to the nave and chancel looks very red. At the time, I didn’t think about this because reddened dolomitic limestone from the Sprotbrough Member of the Cadeby Formation gives the historic architecture of Whitwell its locally distinctive character. 

 

A view of the west end of St. Lawrence's church

Entering the churchyard, my photographs of the west end of the church clearly show the set-off on the tower as described by Historic England, which is marked by a single course of thinly bedded and well squared limestone that projects very slightly from the adjacent masonry and could hardly be described as a string course. 

 

A view of the tower in the sunshine

 

Looking at the walling, I can’t see any real change in the pattern of masonry in the different stages of the tower, with thinly bedded rubble masonry being mixed with larger squared blocks of limestone that are uniform in colour and texture and, to my eye, the quoins also seem to be part of the same phase of construction. 

 

A view of the upper part of the tower

 

I have seen numerous examples of C12 church towers that have been heightened in the Decorated Gothic and Perpendicular Gothic styles and the change in the pattern of masonry is generally very obvious – with the individual stone blocks being larger, much better squared and laid in courses of a regular height as time moves on.

 

A view of the south elevation of the tower

 

My 1978 edition of Pevsner for Derbyshire refers to the Norman elements as including the tower and blocked windows of the belfry stage, with the replacement windows, battlements and pinnacles being added in the Perpendicular Gothic style. 

 

A view of the belfry stage of the tower

 

In Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire (1875), however, J. C. Cox considers that the uppermost stage has been added at a much later date, which he states can be clearly seen on its north side, with the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland (CRSBI) only mentioning the lower stage as being C12. 

 

The west door

 

On the approach to the tower, I couldn’t see and strong reddening of the masonry and, getting close to the west door of the tower, slightly pink and yellow limestone forms a small proportion of the stonework but, in places, the joints have been pointed with mortar containing red sand.

 

The north capital with acanthus leaves

 

The arch to the west door is decorated with chevrons and has two very weathered capitals, which the CRSBI describe as a fine acanthus carving to the north and a corner animal head and intersecting beaded strands, with trefoil infills, to the south. 

 

The south capital with an animal head

 

Moving round to the south side of the tower, a narrow round arched window has a head and surrounds that are very irregular in shape and size, as previously seen in the window above the west door and in many of the quoins to the tower.

 

The C12 window in the south elevation of the tower