Gotham
St Lawrence

Stonework

Exterior

Tower

Red-brown to greenish-grey sandstone, probably Triassic keuper sandstone, sometimes cross-bedded with clay pebbles, the texture soft and fine, except in the plinth and quoins, and most likely from Kings Mill, Castle Donnington or Weston Cliff, local sources for such stone. There are new red sandstone inserts in the tower and millstone grit mouldings, available from Derbyshire, on the tower door. The spire is covered with ashlar tiles unusually rough hewn on the inner face.

Walls

Most of the lower parts of external walls have recently been cement rendered, but the clerestory above, with five windows on either side show a mixture of lias limestone, formerly available from local outcrop quarries, and red-brown or green-grey sandstone rubble with ashlared green-grey sandstone quoins [Triassic, from Kegworth, Castle Donnington, Kings Mill, Weston Cliff area ?]. The walls are supported by new Lincolnshire limestone buttresses.

Roof

The lean-to roof over the nave and aisles is finished with slates.

Boundary Wall

Lias limestone is used for much of the wall surrounding the church and the ancient graveyard with a weathered Bulwell sandstone wall at the gate and the entrance to church from the main road. The rest is village brick.

Church cemetery

Inscriptions:   Swithland gravestones common with later Welsh slate stones.
Coffin:   Empty coffin lying in the south porch is Lincolnshire ragstone, a limestone with many tiny fossilized shells.

Interior

Walls, columns

Very fine grained green-grey, red-grey sandstone, relatively weak. Better quality stone has been used for the base and lower courses of the columns with the upper courses showing clay bands typical of the Triassic sandstone. The chancel, which was repaired in 1789, is mainly sandstone with a patchwork of limestone and village brick infilling in places.

Floors

Gritstone from Derbyshire. The floor of the north aisle floor shows less wear than the south. A carpet covers the central aisle.