Details
893/7/236 ST EDMUNDS CLOSE
13-FEB-67 ALLESTREE
CHURCH OF ST EDMUND
II*
Parish church of C12-C13, rebuilt 1865-66 by Stevens & Robinson.
MATERIALS: Coursed local gritstone, with tooled dressings to C19 fabric, timber-framed porch, graded slate roofs.
PLAN: Nave with aisles under separate roofs and incorporating chapels, lower chancel, south porch, south-east vestry and north-west parish room.
EXTERIOR: Mainly in Decorated style, with buttresses, corbel tables and coped gables. The 3-stage west tower has angle buttresses in the C13 lower stage. Upper stages are later, possibly C15, with plain parapet that could be as late as the C19. The round north-west turret is clearly C19. The 2-light west window is C19, above which the small narrow second-stage window, and a taller top stage with round clock (1853 by John Whitehurst of Derby) and 2-light belfry openings with Y-tracery. The south aisle has two 3-light windows and porch in the first bay, which has open sides on moulded posts and arcading, and iron gates under an open truss. Inside is the re-set C12 doorway, much restored. It has continuous chevron decoration to an inner order, and an outer order of attached shafts that includes possible seed pods and demon sprouting branches. In the arch is an order of beak head, and label with saltire crosses and an outer order comprising scroll-like leaves on the left side, and circles with crossed ferns on the right side. The chapel at the end of the south aisle has an added late C20 vestry, and a 3-light east window. The north aisle has two 3-light windows, and its chapel has cusped windows either side of a buttress with stack, and 3-light east window. The chancel has a similar 3-light east window and 2-light south window.
INTERIOR: The C13 tower arch has 3 orders of chamfer, the inner on responds but the outer dying into the imposts. A blocked north arch, which opened to what is now the church hall, has similar detail. Three-bay nave arcades are Early-English style with round piers and stepped arches. The chancel arch is on short corbelled shafts. The nave has an arched-brace roof on corbels, and the aisles have crown-post roofs with quatrefoils below the apex. Two-bay chancel arcades are on double round piers with foliage capitals. The chancel has a closed polygonal roof with moulded ribs and bosses. Walls are exposed freestone. In the north chancel wall is an arched tomb recess into which a fragment of a medieval grave slab has been placed. In the chancel south wall is a C19 cusped piscina. Floors are laid with C19 tiles, with floorboards below pews, and C20 wood-block floor in the north chapel.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The C19 font, of Norman influence, is polished marble with square bowl on corner shafts and central round stem. The plain panelled polygonal pulpit of c1962 is in the north aisle. The wrought-iron chancel screen is late C19 or early C20 and has a central gable. Pews have plain square ends and choir stalls are dated 1932. There are several C18-C19 wall tablets. Are also several late C19 and C20 stained-glass windows, including the Angel of the Resurrection in the chancel east window (1890) and patterned coloured and etched glass in the south aisle.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Timber-framed lych gate with hipped shingled roof.
HISTORY: A village church of C12 origin, evidence for which is the re-set south doorway. The tower is C13-C15 (with C19 stair turret and remodelling), but otherwise the church is a rebuilding of 1865-66 by H.I. Stevens (1806-73) and F.J. Robinson (1833-92), architects of Derby. Stevens had earned a reputation as an ecclesiastical architect and built many churches in the East Midlands. Chancel and tower incorporate medieval fabric but aisles are entirely C19.
SOURCES:
The Parish Church of St Edmund, Allestree, 1990.
Pevsner (revised E. Williamson), The Buildings of England: Derbyshire (1978), 189.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of St Edmund, Allestree, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* The church has a late C12 doorway which, although much restored, retains much of its vigorous original carving.
* The church retains a medieval tower of C13 origin, and C13-C14 tomb recess in the chancel.
* The main body of the church is by well-respected C19 Derby architects and retains original architectural character, and use of traditional local materials, in spite of its late C20 vestry.
