Bythorn

St Lawrence, open, has lost most of its spire and the tower now appears to have been topped out with a pepper pot; it looks bizarre but I rather liked it even if Pevsner found it "an unhappy sight". The setting is lovely but it's internally dull.

ST LAWRENCE. An unhappy sight. The tower has recently lost most of its spire, and what remains looks like a tower-mill with its cap and without sails. The broaches are there too, and one tier of lucarnes. The bell-openings are of two lights, and there is a quatrefoil frieze over. The W window is Dec; so is the spherical triangle window above it. The chancel with its steep roof is higher than the embattled nave, and that does not make things better. The plain N and S doorways are of c.1200, the N and S arcades of c.1300. They are of four bays. N has alternating round and octagonal piers, S all quatrefoil. Both have double-chamfered arches. N probably precedes S by a little. The two-bay N chapel arcade is elementary Perp. - PLATE Cup with Steeple Cover of 1614-15.

BYTHORN. It is a quiet place with charming cottages gathered round its little church, its nave belonging to the 13th century, the handsome tower with a fine spire 14th, and the imposing clerestory, crowned with an embattled parapet, about 400 years old. The church has two sundials, a big font of Shakespeare’s day, a 16th century chapel, and a 17th century altar table. But its best possession is the roof of the nave, with foliage and faces that have seen the coming and going of Bythorn folk for five hundred years.

Flickr.