Details
SJ 80 SW DONINGTON C.P. RECTORY ROAD
(east side)
6/75
Church of St. Cuthbert
-
G.V. II*
Parish church. Early C14 chancel, nave c.1635; west tower (on site
of C15 tower), north aisle and south porch added by John Norton in the
restoration of 1879-80. Red sandstone ashlar (coursed rubble to chancel),
plain tiled roofs. Tower, 3 stages, plinth with diagonal buttresses,
hexagonal stair turret in angle to north aisle, lancets on ground and
first floor stages, cusped 2 light Decorated style windows under hood-
moulds to belfry; embattled parapet with 4 winged gargoyles, quatrefoil
frieze below, brass weathercock. Nave, plinth and buttresses, 3 elementary
2-light Perpendicular windows under hoodmoulds probably of c.1630-40;
pointed south doorway and porch, timber with bargeboards on sandstone
walls,1879-80; at the east end are the foundations of what was probably
a small transept, taken down when the nave was rebuilt in 1635. North aisle,
steeply pitched roof, 4 paired lancets to north wall and single lancets
to east and west. Chancel, stepped chamfered plinth and angle buttresses
to east wall; intersecting tracery to east window (c.1300), other windows
also contemporary, 2 cusped lights with spherical triangles above, all
have hoodmoulds of scroll type with crudely carved faces as label stops,
the west window in the south wall also has a transom and low-side window
beneath (see the partly restored stone work for securing the bolt of
the shutter inside); priest's door, double chamfered pointed arch, again
with hoodmould and crudely carved faces as label stops. A stone bowl
(possibly a medieval font) with carved leaf decoration is situated by
the buttress at the east end of the nave. Interior. North aisle
arcade of 4 bays, octagonal capitals with heads in the spandrels, paired
lancets in the north wall with detached columns in imitation of Early
English style. Pointed tower arch c.1880; magnificent double hammer
beam roof with wind braces and grotesque heads to the highly decorated
carved wall post brackets, inscription on tie beam at west end "Thomas
Brigg, Carpenter 1635". Chancel arch with stiff leaf foliage carving
on the capitals, 1879, low stone screen with cast iron rail, 1897; the
trussed rafter roof to the chancel is probably medieval; restored early
C14 piscina with credence shelf, aumbry on north side has C19 brass
hinged wooden door; stained glass in east window 1885; fragments of
medieval (C15?) glass in east window of north wall and, in the window
to the west, the fine C14 glass includes figures of the Virgin and
Christ, probably from a Coronation of the Virgin, also armorial shields.
Font, pulpit and all the fittings are late C19 except the Perpendicular
bench ends in the north aisle; a board (set up in 1746) recording the
parish charities hangs on the north aisle wall and over the tower arch
are the Royal Coat of Arms (George III). Monuments. Brass plate on
south chancel wall to John Chapman (died 1607); alabaster cartouche
commemorating Edmund and Richard Waring (latter died 1676) and a polished
stone slab to 2 infant daughters (died 1650 and 1653) of Ferrers Fowke
of Brewood on the west wall of the nave. Probably.founded between 1085
and 1094 by Roger de Montgomery, the advowson of the church belonged
to Shrewsbury Abbey until the Dissolution. Pevsner, B.O.E. p.12'2;
Cranage VQI,I, pp.20-21.
Listing NGR: SJ8088304654
