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Description

SK 93 SE ROPSLEY & HUMBY CHURCH LANE 20-9-66 Ropsley 5/61 Church of St. Peter G.V. I Parish Church: C11,C12, C13, C14, C15, C 16, C17; coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, lead and plain tiled roof. Western tower, nave, 2 aisles, chancel, south chapel and porch. An unbuttressed C13 tower in coursed rubble with quoins, of 3 stages with moulded plinth and 2 string courses. It has in its south east corner a small stair turret and plain doorway. The west face has a C15 2 light window with a rectangular niche over which pierces the string course. The 2nd stage has a small round headed window. In the 3rd stage on all faces except the east are C13 double belfry lights with colonettes and blank trefoils in the tympana. On the east face is a single opening above the original steep pitch of the nave. The tower has a C14 broach spire with 3 tiers of lucarnes, the lower two in the compass directions, the top in the diagonals. The spire has fine weather vane. To north west corner of the nave long and short Anglo Saxon quoins are exposed. On the 4th stone up is a small flaring arm rood. These quoins stand proud of the nave wall probably to act as a stop for original external plaster. The north aisle has a lead roof. There is a plinth on its north face and it has a plain moulded parapet. It has 2 stepped buttresses and a larger east buttress containing the rood loft stair. The north door is C15 with a square hood mould and is flanked to the west by a C15 2 light window and to the east by a pair of C14 2 light windows. The east aisle window is a C14 light with curvilinear tracery having hood mould with human mask stops. The north clerestorey has a plain parapet with a lead roof behind drained by 2 grotesque gargoyles. The 2 windows are C15 with 2 lights under shallow 4 centre heads with hood moulds. At the north east corner of the nave further Anglo Saxon quoins are exposed. The chancel is in dressed rubble with a plain tiled roof having stone coped gable with cross fleury to ridge. The north side has a C17 2 light cross mullioned window with ogee heads under a square shallow hood mould. The east window is a similar one with 3 lights, set between clasping corner buttresses. The south side has 2 string courses between which is found a C12 round headed single light. The south chapel has a shallow lead roof behind a raised gable on the east side which is lit by a C14 2 light window. On the south side a small C14 priests door is flanked by to the east a small C15 altar window and to the west by a C16 3 light window and a C15 single light. The north aisle has a splayed base and plain moulded parapet concealing a lead roof which is drained by 2 gargoyles. Stepped buttresses mark both ends. There are 2 large C15 3 light windows east of the porch and a small niche or light to the west. The porch has a panellel parapet with shields in quatrefoils and 3 pinnacles to the gables, the one at the ridge containing a niche. The opening is set between angle buttresses and has a hood mould with foiled circles in the spandrels. An inscription over reads"Hac non vade via, nisi dicas Ave Maria" translated "go not away unless you say an Ave Maria". The C15 south door has a niche over it and an inscription recording the porch's construction in 1486. The south clerestorey is as the north but with 4 windows under a continuous hood mould. Interior; the 3 bay south arcade of C13 double chamfered arches has keeled responds which would originally have been flanked by 2 smaller piers, and a circular eastern pier and a replacement octagonal western pier on which an inscription reads "ista columna facta fuit ad festum Sancta Michaelis Anno Damini MCCCLXXX at nomen factoris Thomas Bate de Corby" translated "This column was made for the feast of St. Michael in the year of our Lord 1380 and the name of the maker was Thomas Bate of Corby". The C12 3 bay north arcade has circular piers, square abacii and nicked corners and heavily scalloped capitals and round arches with one step, one chamfer and a half roll. In the south aisle is a small piscina. In the north aisle are the rood loft stairs which lead to the loft, via an unusual triangular arched bridge across the aisle. The bridge is decorated with carved faces, 2 being very small. Beside the east north aisle window is a tiny pointed niche for a relic. The tower arch is a recut C13 opening, the chancel arch is C13 and matches the south arcade. The nave roof is C15 and braced with human mask corbels. The chancel has a C14 aumbry on its north wall and a C14 double niche or sedilia on its south side. A tomb recess with C14 ogee decoration, damaged, shows that the chancel was shortened in C17. The south chapel is early C13 with one bay of triple responds and a double chamfered round arch. It has a C14 piscina and aumbry. Fittings: The C18 altar rails are fitted as a rail to the chancel. The pews are C19 although some retain C15 poppy head bench ends. The pulpit is C20. The octagonal font is C15 with shields in quatre- foils. There is one monument in the south aisle under a recess, a C14 lady with her head resting on 2 cushions beneath an ogee canopy on which are carved further small figures, probably of her children. In the east window of the north aisle are remnants of medieval glass and a small fragment of an inscription "de Welby". An engraving by Fowler dated 1809 shows this window before it was damaged and it is clear that it referred to Sir John Welby of 1376. The porch was built by Bishop Richard Fox, founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who was born in Ropsley in 1447/8. Sources: H.M. Taylor and Joan Taylor: Anglo Saxon Architecture Treasure beyond Measure: Lincolnshire Churches Trust p.83. Listing NGR: SK9926534220

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