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Description

BOSTON TF3244SE CHURCH CLOSE 716-1/7/8 (South side) 27/05/49 Parish Church of St Botolph GV I Parish church. 1309 work commenced on chancel, nave and aisles completed 1390, tower started c1450 and completed 1520. Restoration by Gilbert Scott in 1845 and George Place of Nottingham in 1851-53. Further restoration of 1929 by Sir Charles Nicholson. Nave altar of 1978 by Ronald Sims. MATERIALS: ashlar with lead roofs. PLAN: western tower with tall octagonal lantern called 'The Stump', nave with clerestorey, aisles, chancel, south porch and chapel, north vestry. EXTERIOR: tall 3-stage tower with stepped set back buttresses, all panel traceried with crocketed pinnacles. Deeply moulded plinth with quatrefoil frieze, moulded offsets to each stage, blank tracery to all surfaces, castellated parapet. Tall octagonal lantern with flying buttresses, decorated parapet with ogee arches, crocketed pinnacles to each angle. To all 4 sides a pair of 2-light double height windows to the middle stage, with pointed heads and crocketed ogees over. To the belfry stage a single broad opening with moulded pointed head, containing pierced 4-light bell openings. On the south and north sides the ground floor stage has a tall double height 4-light window with pointed head and cusped tracery. To the west side a pair of doors with traceried heads, set in a wide recessed doorway with cusped and crocketed ogee arch over, seaweed tracery, double panelled spandrels and to either side double height blank statue niches with nodding ogees, all with castellated and arcaded parapet. Above a very large 8-light west window, with cusped tracery and continuously moulded pointed surround. The north aisle has a moulded plinth and parapet, plain stepped buttresses with decorated gablettes, figures and pinnacles. In the west end a C15 5-light window. The north side is of 7 bays with tall 4-light windows with flowing tracery, hood moulds with human head stops. The 2nd bay from the west has a doorway with pointed moulded surround and traceried C14 door. Above is a 4-light traceried window. At each end of the north aisle is a tall pinnacle with statue niche. The clerestorey is of 14 bays with closely set 2-light windows, quatrefoil frieze to parapet and flat pilaster buttresses with decorated pinnacles with statue niches, some containing original carved figures. At the west end is a battlemented stair tower. The north aisle east window is of 5 lights, with reticulated tracery. The aisle end has a pierced quatrefoil frieze to the parapet. The organ chamber and vestry extension by Sir Charles Nicholson has a flat roof behind a parapet. The chancel is of 4 bays, with tall stepped buttresses with diamond-set tall pinnacles. It has a moulded plinth and panelled frieze to the parapet with lobed quatrefoils. 4 windows of 4 lights, 2 with flowing tracery, 2 with perpendicular tracery. The eastern one is partly blocked off due to the altar reredos. The east window is of 7 lights with flowing tracery and by George Place. Pierced gable parapet to chancel and nave. The south side of the chancel is of 5 bays and similar to the north side. Under the central window is a priest's doorway with ogee moulding over pointed head, with foliate pinnacle. It is flanked by statue niches and has a castellated top. The south aisle has a moulded plinth and wave-moulded parapet with tall panelled pinnacles with crocketed finials and statue niches. It is of 5 bays, with gabled stepped buttresses. The east window is of 5 lights with flowing tracery. The south side has similar 4-light windows. The nave clerestorey is similar to the south side, but has alternating forms of flowing traceried windows. The south porch is of 2 storeys with parvise. The buttresses have 3 tiers of niches and pinnacles. To the east side is a chimney stack with brattished top and side pinnacles. The south doorway is deeply moulded with thin moulded shafted reveals and above a cusped moulded arch. In the gable a 5-light 4-centred arched window. The parapet has a quatrefoil frieze and sundial dated 1757. The porch has side stone benches and half engaged triple wall shafts. The inner doorway has 3 thin shafts and moulded surround and late C14 traceried door. Beyond the porch is the 3-bay Cotton Chapel with 3-light reticulated traceried mullions, and buttresses with gablettes. Beyond is the choir vestry by Sir Charles Nicholson. At the corner of the aisle is a prominent turret pinnacle. INTERIOR: 7-bay tall nave arcades, having quatrefoil piers with fillets, annular capitals and tall bases. Double moulded pointed arches, with continuously linked moulded heads. Roll moulded string to base of clerestorey and flower frieze at head. Painted timber nave ceiling 1927, by Sir Charles Nicholson, with moulded beams in coffered formation with bosses at intersections. Tall continuously moulded painted tower arch. Arcaded tower walls. High up, at the top of the second stage is a star lierne vault by GG Pace, using the springers of an unexecuted medieval vault. Broad double moulded pointed chancel arch, with quarter engaged responds and capitals. Small pointed doorway to rood stairs and blocked upper door. The south aisle has a moulded sill band and painted timber roof with trusses supported on beast corbels. At the west end is an arcade of 2 bays into the Cotton Chapel, with quatrefoil pier and heavily moulded arches. The south doorway has on the inside 2 wide chamfers and hood mould on head stops, and the dovetailed planks of the C14 door can be seen. Next is the doorway to the porch parvise, and a blocked door to the demolished chapel of the Corpus Christi Guild, containing a reset medieval brass. Two shafted tomb recesses and canopies with nodding ogees. Triple sedilia with quatrefoil columns, cusped arches and heads. The north aisle is as the south, with 3 low tomb recesses. The chancel has a C18 painted barrel-vaulted ceiling and a flower frieze as the nave. 9 steps up to the sanctuary. FITTINGS: include an octagonal C19 font in elaborate C14 style, by EW Pugin, on large stepped stone plinth. Reredos of 1890 by WS Weatherley. Pulpit of 1612, octagonal on carved polygonal shaft, with richly carved panels, gadrooned arches, paired fluted Ionic columns, carved back panel, tester with full cornice and obelisk finials. Curved C18 stairs with slender barley-sugar twist balusters and fluted newels. Choir stalls of c1390 with good misericords. Canopies of 1853-60. Communion rails wrought-iron of 1754 altered 1853. C17 parish chest. Door knocker on south tower door of C13 with lion's head. Charles I coat-of-arms and 10 hatchments in the tower. Stained glass: by M & A O'Connor 1853, Kempe 1889, Burlison and Grylls 1944 and others. MONUMENTS: include at west end of north aisle an incised slab of Tournai marble 1312 to a Hanseatic merchant. 2 busts of c1400 - Walter Pescod and wife d 1398 and a priest c1400. In south aisle a c1400 brass, and C15 alabaster knight on tombchest, with ogee panels and angels, and alabaster lady, possibly Dame Margaret Tilney. By the tower 2 early C18 cartouches. Various late C18 and early C19 classical wall tablets to members of the Fydell family. (Buildings of England: Antram N: Lincolnshire: London: 1989-: 156-61; Spurrell Rev M: Boston Parish Church: Boston). Listing NGR: TF3268844184

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