Benchmark - St Edmund - Egleton, Rutland - European Historic Survey Stones, Monuments and Benchmarks on Waymarking.com

A cut benchmark on the south east corner of St Edmund's church, Egleton.

"The church of ST. EDMUND consists of chancel 28 ft. 6 in. by 15 ft. 3 in., clearstoried nave 41 ft. 6 in. by 20 ft., south porch 8 ft. 6 in. by 12 ft. 3 in., and west tower 9 ft. square, all these measurements being internal. The tower is surmounted by a spire. There was formerly a north aisle of four bays.

With the exception of the tower, which is faced with ashlar, the building is of rubble, with lowpitched leaded roofs. There are plain parapets to the chancel, but the nave roof is eaved. The walls are plastered internally.

The building dates from the 12th century, to which period the existing chancel arch and south doorway belong, together with a considerable portion of the walling of the nave. The church remained unaltered till the 14th century, when a north aisle was thrown out, an arcade with clearstory over being erected, and the tower and porch added. The chancel seems to have been rebuilt in its present form in the 15th century, and new windows were inserted in the nave. There appears to be no record of the date of the removal of the aisle, but when this took place the arcade was left standing, the arches being blocked  and windows inserted in the filling of the two middle bays. The spire and the two upper stages of the tower were rebuilt more than a century ago,  and the porch, too, appears to have been rebuilt. There was a restoration in 1872.

The semicircular chancel arch is 7 ft. 9 in. wide and of two chamfered orders, resting on large square imposts and single nook-shafts on the nave side with carved capitals and moulded bases. Both imposts and shafts are highly enriched, the former with cable, billet, cheveron and guilloche mouldings and scroll foliage, and the shafts with beaded cheverons and trellis pattern respectively. The capitals of the shafts are carved with conventional foliage and the bases have a cable moulding.

The south doorway is an equally good example of 12th-century work. It has a semicircular arch with cheveron and double-cone moulding and outer band of star pattern, springing from enriched square imposts supported on nook-shafts with carved cushion capitals. The soffit of the arch is plain and the hoodmould terminations are a beast's head and a mask. The western shaft is covered with a variety of devices  and that on the east with a flat zigzag pattern. Within the arch is a remarkable tympanum of elaborate design, in the centre of which is a large six-limbed geometrical figure, perhaps a conventional rose, set within a circular cable border. The border also encloses a series of shallow concentric circles, and is supported by a dragon and a beast perhaps intended for a lion, both with their claws on the cable and tugging at the ends of another cable above it. On the lintel is a band of scroll foliage with cable above and a wavy line below.

The chancel is divided externally into two bays by buttresses, and there is a pair of buttresses at the north-east, but none at the south-east angle.  There is a small priest's doorway in the south wall, and with one exception the windows have four-centred heads, hoodmoulds and cinquefoiled lights. The east window is of five lights with tracery, but the two windows on the south side and the easternmost on the north are without tracery and of three lights. The remaining two-light window is square-headed. The sills of the two south windows are lowered to form seats and in the usual position is a moulded piscina, with projecting angular grooved trough. There is a fourcentred moulded wall recess below the north-east window, and in the east wall, on either side of the altar, a plain image bracket. The roof has a plastered ceiling of four bays, between exposed tie-beams. The floor is flagged.

North of the chancel arch, at the north-east corner of the nave, is a blocked doorway to the rood loft stair and above it the opening to the loft. The lower doorway is four-centred, the upper squareheaded. There is also a squint, with plain fourcentred head, cut through the wall north of the chancel arch, directed from the former north aisle. The 15th-century oak rood screen is now in front of the tower arch. It is of three bays, with wide middle opening and traceried lower panels, and on either side are three trefoiled openings. The upper rail has a band of alternate heads and flowers. The screen has been partly restored and reduced in height.

The 14th-century arcade, now incorporated in the north wall of the nave, consists of four pointed arches of two chamfered orders with hood-moulds, on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. The inserted windows are of similar design to the threelight windows of the chancel, but the four clear- story windows are square-headed and of two trefoiled lights. The two large pointed windows on the south side of the nave, as already noted, are 15thcentury insertions.That east of the porch is of four cinquefoiled lights with tracery and battlemented transom below which the lights are again cusped; the other is of three cinquefoiled lights, with the mullions continued to the head, and the transom is plain. Above the porch is a small squareheaded two-light window, like those of the clearstory opposite, but without cusping. The grotesque stone corbels which supported the earlier roof still remain in the walls of the nave. The porch, which is of great depth, has an outer continuous moulded ogee doorway and hood with head-stops. Its flat-pitched gable has a moulded coping.

The tower is of three stages, but only the lower portion of the 14th-century structure, with a pointed west window of two trefoiled lights, remains. There is no vice, and the angles are without buttresses. The arch to the nave is of three chamfered orders, the outer continuous and the inner order on halfoctagonal responds with moulded capitals. The arch is blocked on the west side and a modern doorway inserted. The filling in of the internal angles of the tower is modern and exists only on the ground floor. The two modern upper stages are faced with closely jointed ashlar, and the bell-chamber windows are wide single openings with segmental heads. The tower terminates in a plain parapet with angle pinnacles. The spire has plain angles and is pierced with three tiers of small holes on its cardinal faces. There is a cock vane.

The font dates from c. 1200, and consists of a square bowl on four modern legs and central shaft, set on the original chamfered plinth. The sides of the bowl are carved with a floriated Calvary cross between two discs (east), a six-leaved flower or star (west), a plain Latin cross (north), and a circle, now nearly obliterated (south).

The church was reseated in 1872, but four old bench-ends with carved poppy-heads remain in the nave. The pulpit is modern. There are no monuments older than 1756.

In the tower are two bells, both blank.

The plate consists of a cup and cover paten of 1569–70, and a two-handled porringer of 1719–20. There are also two pewter plates.

The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms and burials 1538–1768, marriages 1538–1754; (ii) baptisms and burials 1767–1812; (iii) marriages 1754–1812."

SOURCE - (Visit Link)