Foxton, Cambridgeshire

St Laurence has some fabulous roof angels and bosses but the thing that sticks in my mind is the CWGC headstone for Wing Commander Anthony Hawken who died on 28th November 2001 - I love the fact that the CWGC are still remembering servicemen who fell not just in WWI & II but also those who serve today.

ST LAURENCE. An indulgence was granted in 1456 to those who would contribute to the building of chancel, nave, and campanile. It seems, however, as if only the tower was really rebuilt at that time. The chancel with its three lancet windows of even height at the E end and traces of a double opening above them in the gable belongs clearly to the C13. Inside shafts with shaftrings between the windows, and a hood-mould ornamented with dog-tooth. Double Piscina of the Jesus College type - but the arch arrangement seems a C19 reconstruction. The N and S windows of the chancel look a little later, c. 1300 and early C14. The N arcade of three bays also c. 1300; piers with strong demi-shafts with fillets and very fine convex curves in the diagonals. The arch starts with a broach and has one wave moulding. The S arcade has one Perp bay and then two with demi-shafts and keeled thin shafts in the diagonals. Double-chamfered arches. These piers go well with the Dec (reticulated) E window of the S transept, i.e. E end of the S aisle. The other S aisle windows Early  Dec but suspicious. Restoration of the church 1881 by Ewan Christian. The N aisle windows Dec, and the E window again reticulated. The church has one odd anomaly, hard to explain. The clerestory is Perp, but its first windows from the W on both the N and S sides are Dec. The aisles do not start immediately E of the tower. There is a piece of plain wall first and up in that piece are the Dec clerestory windows. The W tower is C15 from the arch towards the nave to the embattled top (spike behind the battlements). What then happened? Chancel roof with arched braces and a collar-beam high up. The angels at the springing of the braces and on the wall-plate much repaired. - ROOD SCREEN. Only the dado is old. - PARCLOSE SCREEN. With simple graceful one-light divisions. - BENCHES. Plain, straight-topped, buttressed. - PLATE. Chalice and Paten 1569.

 

 

 

FOXTON. It has many thatched cottages and an old flint church which had a tower added to it 500 years ago, when the nave arcades were two centuries old. From the 13th century also come the crude oval font and a beautiful east window made up of three tall lancets with deep splays, shafts carrying moulded arches, and carved hoods. There are two medieval oak screens, the one in the chancel arch having a half-timbered wall above it. The line roofs have 15th century beams and bosses carved with flowers, animals, and people, and there are 15th century benches in the clerestoried nave. Both aisles have fine east windows 600 years old, and in one are fragments of the original glass.

Flickr.