Details
SE 91 NE HORKSTOW MAIN STREET
(east side)
7/42 Church of Saint Maurice
6.11.67
GV I
Parish church. C13 tower, nave arcades, north aisle and chancel. C14-C15
south aisle and clerestory. C17 repairs to nave and north aisle roofs; C18
- early C19 repairs to chancel. Re-seated'and interior restored 1868.
Restorations of 1898 by R H Fowler included re-facing aisles. Chalk rubble,
limestone ashlar and brick chancel; chalk rubble and limestone ashlar tower
and north aisle; ashlar south aisle. Pantile roof to tower; slates to south
aisle, chancel, porch and vestry; lead and C20 stainless steel roofs to
north aisle and nave. West tower, 3-bay aisled nave with north and south
porches (latter now vestry), 3-bay chancel. 2-stage tower: 1st stage has
buttresses with re-set moulded caps, keyhole slit to west, C19 window to
south; plain string course, 2nd stage shows line of former steeply-pitched
gable on east face, twin lancet belfry openings beneath pointed hoodmould
with carved stops. Stepped and cogged brick eaves cornice, pyramidal roof.
Nave: two 2-light cinquefoiled clerestory windows. South aisle: two C19
pointed 2-light windows with Geometric tracery, 3-light east window with C19
head, C14-C15 square-headed 2-light west window with crude Perpendicular
tracery. Adjoining vestry has twin C19 lancets. North aisle: plinth to
east of porch; two 2-light pointed windows with C19 heads and Geometric
tracery; late C13 pointed 2-light west and east windows with Geometric
tracery, latter with hoodmould and carved headstops. Chancel: rendered
plinth, ashlar quoins, much brick patching in walls; single blocked lancets
and C19-C20 square-headed 3-light trefoiled windows in chamfered brick
reveals to north and south, two restored east lancets. North porch: rock-
faced rustication with smooth-faced ashlar quoins; shafted outer door with
pointed double-chamfered arch and hoodmould; foiled opening to west side.
Interior. Pointed chamfered tower doorway. North and south arcades of
pointed double-chamfered arches with hoodmoulds and fine carved headstops;
C13 cylindrical piers to north and early C14'octagonal piers to south, both
with plain moulded capitals and bases, semicircular responds to east, keeled
responds to west (obscured by plaster on south). Pointed double-chamfered
south door in vestry has remains of crude outer shafts. Pointed double-
chamfered chancel arch on moulded corbels, semicircular to south, octagonal
to north. Chancel floor raised 6 steps, with two further sections towards
east, each raised 2 steps and with pointed double-chamfered transverse
arches above on C19 responds and capitals, those to central arch perhaps re-
cut. Encaustic tile chancel floor, C19 roof. Nave roof of plain, heavy oak
dated 1609 probably represents lowering of C15 crown-post roof: central
jowelled posts have broad down-braces to tie-beams and up-braces to ridge
purlin, short struts braced to tie beam and tenoned into principals carry
purlins, and tie-beams are braced to later wall-posts on ashlar corbels.
North aisle roof has butt-purlins with curved wind-braces; the principals,
tenoned through nave wall, terminate in pegged brackets, one dated 1659.
C18-C19
staggered butt-purlin roof to south aisle. Monuments: pair of marble wall
tablets at east end of nave to Rear Admiral Thomas Shirley of 1814, and
Colonel John Tufnell of 1838, with carved ornament on grey obelisk-shaped
bases; finely-inscribed oval marble wall tablet to Catherine Ayers of 1759
in north aisle. N Pevsner and J Harris, The Buildings of England:
Lincolnshire, 1978, 275-6; Associated Architectural Societies' Reports and
Papers, 1895, vol 23, pt 1, p xii; ibid, 1905, vol 28, pt 1, p vii-viii;
Drawing by C Nattes, 1796, Banks Collection, Lincoln City Library.
Listing NGR: SE9871618221
