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South Scarle St Helena

Official Listing Description

Parish church, C12, C13, C14, C15, C18 and C19. Coursed blue lias rubble with ashlar dressings, Welsh slate and leaded roofs; west tower, nave, chancel, south aisle, south porch, north aisle converted to Parish Room. West tower 4 stages, with battlemented ashlar parpet and 8 crocketed pinnacles; clasping buttresses, 4 setoffs, on plinths, up to third stag. String courses at each stage. Triple lancet on second stage, with intersecting tracery and hood mould. Bell stage has 4 double lancets. South porch, C15, coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, square plan, with 2 diagonal buttresses with 3 setoffs; plinth, moulded string course, upper string course, battlemented parapet with 2 humanistic gargoyles. 4 centred arched doorway with rebate, roll and cove mouldings; respond shafts with crenellated octagon capitals. Above, niche containing female figure. Low pitched leaded roof with chamfered tie beams, that to north inscribed '1704 WP. RT.ID'. South aisle C14, 3 bays, string course, crenellated parapet, grotesque human head on south-east corner, west window C16, triangular head, 2 four centred arched lights with cusps and panel tracery, mask label stops. 2 south windows, C15, 4 centred arched openings with mask, animal and owl label stops, containing triple lancets with cusped heads. East window C14, square headed triple lancet, Decorated tracery, restored. Parish room, formerly north aisle, C14, 3 bays, 2 C19 buttresses in central bay. East window C14, square headed triple lancet with Decorated tracery. 2 north windows, square headed, 2 light, rebated and chamfered reveal, chamfered mullion, missing to west. C14 doorway with chamfered and roll moulded surround, moulded ogee head. Nave clerestorey, alternating thick and thin ashlar courses, string course with one gargoyle and with grotesque face on east corners on both sides. Battlemented parapet, central merlon has Arms in traceried panel. 3 C15 triple lancets on either face. Chancel in Early English style, coursed rubble with graduated slate roof. 3 bays, north and south sides have 3 tall single lancets in chamfered reveals with plain hood moulds 2 C19 lancets to east, coped gable with cross. 3 bay nave, north arcade has 2 bays of elaborate Norman work; circular piers, west and central with leaf capitals; east pier has shallow scallop. Arches have 2 orders of coffered diaper work on face and soffit plus zigzag, roll mould and a head in the central spandrel. South arcade and east bay of north arcade C13, double chamfered arches with label moulds, mask stops and rosettes. West pier of south arcade has 4 clustered filleted shafts on square seat base and moulded capital. Tower arch, C13, double chamfered, dogtooth band on respond capitals. Octagonal C17 font on C14 base of 8 columns. Nave roof C15, cambered tie beams on curved brackets on corbels, one of timber with rosette. Quatrefoil piercing in spandrels. South aisle C15, roof with carved bosses corbelled from arcade. Contains 10 medieval pews with lozenge finials, another similar pew in base of tower, 2 C18 commandment boards, Charity table, several C19 memorial tablets, C17 communion table. In south-east corner, square headed aumbry and piscina in chamfered surround. In south-west corner, freestanding C15 polygonal piscina. Chancel Screen, decorated style with central lancet opening flanked by lancets containing round headed cusped lights with paoel tracery. Much restored and altered. Chancel Arch, with roll moulding and responds with octagonal capitals. Chancel C13 with C19 canted scissor-braced roof. 2 lancets to east with glass 1867 and 1873. Double piscina C13 in south-east corner, with detached central shaft, roll hood mould and mask stops in spandrel. In north-east corner, aumbry with chamfered reveal; another aumbry in north-west corner in former rood stair recess. 5 C19 classical memorial tablets and incised slab to William Merying, 1510.