Sunday 23 July 2017

Offord Darcy

St Peter, locked, keyholder listed, is a CCT church and sadly the keyholder was out when I called. I say sadly because the interior sounds fascinating and sounds like it warrants a revisit.

 ST PETER. The N arcade is Norman, with square piers with angle shafts. E of the arcade was a recess in the N aisle which was later converted into an opening. The chancel is C13, with a S and a smaller N lancet and a pointed-trefoiled PISCINA. The E window is Perp. Then follows the late C13 S arcade with quatrefoil piers with fillets and double-chamfered arches. Handsome ANGLE PISCINA with a vault and a boss. Externally the church is of cobbles. The W tower seems c.1300. It has clasping buttresses and a recessed stone spire, and the bell-openings and lucarnes look early. - SCREEN. Dec - which is rare; with ogee arches and foiled circles. - STAINED GLASS. Bits in a chancel S window. - PLATE. Cup inscribed 1569 ; later Cover Paten. - MONUMENTS. Brasses to Sir Laurence Pabenham d. 1400 and two wives. Demi-figures, c.22 in. long. According to Mill Stephenson c.1430 (S aisle). - Brass to Dr William Taylard, priest, d. 1532. Kneeling figure, 23 in. long (nave floor). - Civilian and Wife, sunk stone effigies, her draperies very confused. The suggested date is late C14 (N  aisle). - R. Nailour d. 1616 and family. Kneeling parents above, children below. Alabaster (S aisle).

St Peter (3)

OFFORD DARCY. It has two old neighbours, the manor house and the church. Richard Nailour had been in his new house just three years when they carried him to the church next door in the year Shakespeare died. He kneels with his two wives, two sons, and six daughters, all in ruffs and all delightful. By the pulpit lies William Taylard, with his brass portrait showing him in the doctor’s cap he wore in the days of Henry the Eighth. A 14th century brass has two wives and half a husband, the man so sadly cut in two being Sir Laurence Pabenham. .

The church has been here about 700 years, much re-fashioned in the 14th century and with a chancel arch new in the 15th. The oldest part of it is the north arcade, in which three simple Norman arches still stand firm and strong. One of its chief possessions is part of a very fine screen with 600-year-old tracery; it is superbly carved. It is not truly a chancel screen; it is all that remains of a screen separating the lady chapel in the south aisle from the nave, and was put across the chancel arch to preserve it. It did not actually fit and therefore side pieces have been added for attachment to the chancel arch piers. Very curious are some of the heads of men and beasts on the walls, grave or gay as the sculptor’s fancy led him. In the north aisle are crudely carved figures of a married couple in two stone panels; they are 600 years old.

No comments:

Post a Comment