Details
LINCOLN
SK9771SE FREE SCHOOL LANE
1941-1/12/119 (East side)
18/07/73 Church of St Swithin
GV II*
Church. Nave and aisles 1869-71, chancel 1879, tower and spire
1884-87. By James Fowler of Louth, and "without doubt his most
important church". (Pevsner). Paid for largely by the
Shuttleworth family. Rockfaced ashlar with ashlar dressings
and slate roofs. Early English style. PLAN: west tower with
spire, nave with clerestory, north and south aisles, north and
south porches, chancel, vestry.
EXTERIOR: deep moulded plinth, string courses, sill band,
billeted eaves, coped gables with crosses.
West tower, 3 stages, has gabled angle buttresses and stair
turret to south-east. Inscribed eaves band with gargoyles, 4
spire-topped octagonal pinnacles, flying buttresses supporting
a set back octagonal spire with a single tier of lucarnes.
West door has clustered shafts under a crocketed gable. Above,
a 3-light window with hoodmould. Second stage has blind
arcading with crocketed gables. Third stage has on each side a
pair of moulded 2-light openings with shafts and crocketed
gables.
Clerestory has on each side 18 lancets, those to the south set
in blind arcading with shafts.
North aisle, 6 bays, has buttresses and five 3-light windows
with Geometrical tracery and hoodmoulds. In the west end, a
similar window. North porch has a moulded doorway with shafts
and hoodmould under a coped gable.
Similar south aisle has a coped parapet and an additional
window at the east end.
Buttressed, larger south porch has a doorway with double
shafts and hoodmould, and above it, a blind arcade with figure
panels. On either side, a 2-light window with Y-tracery.
Chancel, 2 bays, has buttresses, pierced balustrade, and
crocketed east gable. East end has sill band, a 5-light window
with hoodmould, and above it, a recess with a demi-figure.
Flanking buttresses are topped with blind-arcaded spires.
South side has two 3-light windows.
Vestry has gabled porch and two 2-light windows with
Y-tracery. North gable has an external stack and 2 lancets.
INTERIOR: double chamfered tower arch has double ringed shafts
and hoodmould. Tower chamber has blind arcading and a west
window by A L Moore & Co.
Nave has 6 bay arcades with round and octagonal piers,
octagonal responds and double chamfered arches with
hoodmoulds. Clerestory has sill band and linked hoodmoulds.
Arch braced double purlin roof with curved wind braces, and
round wall shafts on corbels.
Aisles have sill bands, glazed wooden porches, and lean-to
roofs with arch braces. North aisle east end has a double
chamfered arch with panelled screen and organ pipes. South
aisle east end has a painted triptych and brass, 1913, and
stained glass window, 1888.
Chancel has roll moulded arch with double ringed shafts,
screen wall with quatrefoil band and wrought-iron railing.
Continuous sill band. North side has a stilted arched recess
with organ case and Perpendicular style screen. East end has a
panelled dado in the same style, and a wooden reredos with
figures in niches. Stained glass window, 1879. South side has
piscina and sedilia with crocketed gables. 2 stained glass
windows c1880. Arch braced wooden barrel vault with painted
decoration.
FITTINGS include traceried oak pulpit and panelled octagonal
font, both on bases with clustered shafts, stalls and desks,
all C19. Freestanding wooden screen with inscription,
semicircular pediment and keystone, C20. Roman stone altar,
discovered on the site, remains on display.
(Buildings of England : Lincolnshire: Pevsner N: Lincolnshire:
London: 1989-: 500).
Listing NGR: SK9774271227
