Description

DIGBY CHURCH STREET
TF 05 SE (north side)

4/25
Church of St Thomas
1.2.67 A Becket
I
Parish church. Cll, C12, C13, C14, C15 chancel rebuilt 1881. Coursed limestone
rubble and ashlar. Slate roofs, quoins and moulded ashlar plinth. West tower,
nave, aisles, chancel and south porch. Unbuttressed west tower of 3 stages.
West face has single chamfered, pointed lancet and above 3 chamfered ashlar
bands. North face is blank. South face has pointed arched blocked doorway
and projecting stiar with set-offs and 3 tiny windows. The third stage has
a single 2 light bell opening to each face, in pointed arches with flowing
tracery and a hood mould with stops. Above a chamfered ashlar band with rudely
carved gargoyles, then battlements decorated with quartrefoils containing
shields, and 4 crocketed corner pinnacles. Topped by an octagonal crocketed
stone spire with lucarnes and a finial surmounted by an iron weather cock.
The north aisle has a pointed, chamfered lancet to the west, and to the north
5 gabled buttresses with set-offs, and an off centre pointed arched doorway
in chamfered surround with hood, to the right a pointed chamfered lancet. To
the left two, 2 light segment headed windows with reticulated tracery in deeply
chamfered surrounds. To the east a single 3 light pointed arched window with
reticulated tracery in a chamfered surround. Above a 3 bay clerestory, with
pairs of pointed arched windows with flowing tracery in moulded and chamfered
surrounds with continuous hoods, topped by coped battlements with gargoyles
and crocketed pinnacles to the east. The chancel north wall has a tiny round
headed lancet, in chamfered surround. The east wall has a 3 light pointed arched
window with unusual panel tracery, the gable wall is coped with a cross finial
and moulded kneelers. The south wall has a central priest's door in a chamfered
pointed arched surround with hood mould and foliate stops. Either side are
pointed chamfered lancets. The south aisle has an east, 3 light pointed window
with reticulated tracery in a chamfered surround with a hood. To the south
a deeply chamfered plinth, and 2 buttresses with set-offs, plus 2 flat headed
2 light reticulated tracery windows in chamfered surrounds. To the east is
a slate wall tablet to the 8 children of the Harmston family, dated 1844 and
signed by Barnett of Hedeinkton. To the west the porch, with a shallow pitched
gable roof and flush round arched opening. The south aisle, west wall has a
single tall lancet in chamfered surround with remnants of a dogtooth hood.
Inside the porch, stone benches and a round arched doorway with a fine double
arched surround. The inner arch has double roll moulded joints with moulded
imposts and double zig-zag moulded arch. The outer arch has columns with cushion
capitals, though the shafts have now gone, an impost band and a zig-zag moulded
arch. Interior: 3 bay nave arcades with pointed double chamfered arches on
quatrefoil, keeled shafted piers and responds with moulded capitals and bases
plus hood moulds with curved label stops. The north east respond has been
replaced by a now mutilated, carved corbel. Another double chamfered arch leads
from the west end of the north aisle into the present vestry. C15 octagonal
bowl and stem font with diamond shaped panels. The tower arch, chamfered and
pointed, partly obscured by the rood stair. The former steep pitch roof line
visible on the upper wall. The double chamfered and pointed chancel arch has
keeled responds, with a single stiff-leaf, and a single moulded capitals, with
moulded bases. A curved C15 wooden screen in the chancel a double, pointed
arched and chamfered piscina and a similar, single arched sedilia. C19 wooden
roof on carved ashlar corbels. C19 wooden choir stalls, and reredos. Encaustic
tile floor. Cupboard with wooden surround made up of pieces of C17 carving.
Nave has C10 panel ceiling, and aisles C19 wooden roofs. C19 wooden benches,
some with C15 curved bench ends. Various C19 wall tablets to Cooke family.
Chancel has priests chair, made up from various pieces of C15 curved bench ends.

Listing NGR: TF0804854816

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17530800

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)