Building record 0153400000 - GAWCOTT PARISH CHURCH

Dimensions - Width 10m, Length 29m.
Plan Form - Rectangular.
Chapel, built 1806, rebuilt as Holy Trinity Church 1828, restored 1895 (B1,B3).
Classical Georgian style. Stone with ashlar quoins. W tower, nave, polygonal apse (B5).
Memorial to Rev T Scott says he built church on site of a decayed chapel (B6). [See CASS 00435].
Grade II+. Church. 1827. Built by incumbent, Rev Thomas Scott at cost of 1526. Restored and altered 1894 by John Oldrid Scott and C20. Coursed squared limestone with ashlar dressings, slate roof to body of church, lead roofs to tower and apse. PLAN: polygonal apse, wide aisleless nave and small west tower. EXTERIOR: Classical style. Apse is lower than nave and has blank east wall, windows to canted sides and quoins to angles. Windows have round-arched heads, plain raised ashlar surrounds with key blocks, narrow projecting sills and small leaded panes. 3-bay nave has similar windows and rusticated quoins. West end has 6-paned, double-leaf doors either side of tower with plain raised stone surrounds and low pediments on console brackets. Above doors are windows similar to rest, but shorter. Front is surmounted by half pediments, which flank tower. Tower has 3 stages and west window similar to those of nave and on same scale. Middle stage has blank circles to north, south, and west sides with plain raised stone surrounds, and short top stage with clock face to west side. Tower has rusticated quoins, hollow-chamfered string courses, moulded cornice and plain stone-coped ashlar parapet with piers to angles bearing ball finials. Church has chamfered plinth which is of ashlar to west end and tower, hollow-chamfered cornice and pediment gables, and plain stone-coped parapets.
INTERIOR: chancel arch has elliptical-arched head with key block and imposts. Nave and apse have flat plaster ceilings with later applied thin timber ribs. Nave ceiling has 4 circular ventilators with ornamental vents, probably of cast-iron. Original communion rail, shifted forward from entrance to apse, has symmetrical turned balusters. Early C19 hexagonal pulpit with panel mouldings to sides. Original seating in 2 blocks with panelled woodwork. Late C18/early C19 chamber organ with added pedal board. Pair of tall, round arch-headed boards, moved from east to west wall, framing Lord's Prayer and Creed to one, Ten Commandments to other. MONUMENTS: wall monument of white marble on slate ground to parish benefactor John West d.1814 who paid for previous chapel; erected by his trustees and signed Harrison Buckingham. Veined marble wall monument on slate ground, signed Harrison, in memory of Reverend Thomas Scott 1780-1835 as inscription records '(son of the late Thomas Scott Rector of Aston Sandford) and first incumbent of this chapelry'. Inscription goes on to record 27 years of service and building of present church 'on the site of the former Chapel which had fallen to decay, by assistance of friends tho not without considerable personal expense'. He was father of architect Sir G Gilbert Scott (born in Gawcott) and subsequently appointed rector of Wappenham, Northants. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached walls are approximately 1m high and curve forward from west angles of nave to frame shallow forecourt. Punctuated by gateways to north and south sides of churchyard with C20 iron gates. Wall to south returns to enclose south side of churchyard. This continuation is of coursed limestone rubble with brick coping. A length of iron railing with acorn finials to standards joins wall to apse at east end of churchyard. Present building replaces a chapel built 1806 at the expense of John West. Top stage of tower was lowered in 1967 eliminating a bell-chamber window (B7).