The Parish Church of Spalding presents an excellent example of how the
architects of the period transformed an Early Geometrical church into a
Rectilinear one.
Originally the nave and transepts were of one uniform height throughout,
as were also the roofs, plates, clerestory-range, arches, capitals, and
bases respectively. The pillars of the nave were heightened about 6
feet about the year 1450, when the arches were reset and the clerestory
rebuilt and the present windows inserted.
The tower (Perpendicular) should be compared with that of All Saints’,
Moulton, another church built by the Spalding monks. It is surmounted by
lofty pinnacles and flying buttresses connecting them with a crocketed
spire rising to the height of 153 feet. It is placed at the west end of
the south outer aisle.
Mr. Sharpe, in his _Lincoln Excursion_, 1871, says: “The tower and
spire rank among the finest in the country.” And writing on the church,
he says: “Although its separate features have no great merit, it
presents one of the most striking interiors to be seen in any parish
church; due in a great measure to the variety and irregularity of its
different parts, and the many singularities of designs, to which the
various alterations of form have given rise, as well as to the excellent
restoration it has received.
“The Chapel of St. Thomas à Becket is a curious building, the windows of
which have tracery of an unusual kind, in which both right and flowing
lines are introduced.
“The north porch is an important structure of somewhat late in the
Rectilineal Period, with a groined fan-tracery roof and parvise over it.”
Owing to the proximity of the priory, the rich and influential persons
who had died before the demolition of monasteries were buried in the
convent church. The parish church was most ably restored by the late Sir
Gilbert Scott in 1866. The high pews and galleries were removed. The
organ was erected in a new chapel built on the north side of the chancel.
The west window of the nave was filled with new tracery, and the whole
of the windows filled with stained glass. The roofs were thoroughly
overhauled, and new pews erected.
WESTON ST. MARY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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