Lapworth Church, Missal and Relic Chamber

A Photo Post

I visit a lot of churches and most of them contain much of the same things - sometimes a bit of 12th century, often a bit of 13th or 14th century and usually a lot of 15th and 16th century architecture and furnishings (or later). I could bore you all to death with a photo of yet another pillar or arch but I respect my readers too much to do this!

Often I simply pull out the most interesting things and do a composite post of various churches but in this case, Lapworth, the whole church is so interesting I thought I would show you a wider and more complete picture. Here it is, with its unusual tower, which is set to one side.

The chancel, with its large east window, is 12th century, the rest is of a mix of periods - the separate tower (a bit of a rarity) is from around 1380.

The original building was completed around 1120; this pointed chancel arch is from 1200 or later and is an odd shape because they had to build it around a wide Norman arch before removing that early arch. The original round arch probably looked like this one at Berkswell nearby.

These early 13th century pointed arches are often a bit odd, especially where they built them into earlier walls and had to make them fit. This north aisle arcade of arches was originally the north wall of the church and you can see an uncovered 12th century window from that wall. What they did was build the new external wall of the aisle (with its roof) first, then punch through the original external wall to insert the new arches to complete the aisle. If you think the two left arches look a bit wonky, they are.

The font is a bit unusual; early 14th century and octagonal, it has carved heads underneath.