Andrew Bowell has been on his travels and photographed the PARISH CHURCH OF ST NICHOLAS, LUTTON, LINCOLNSHIRE
This Grade 1 listed building is the only brick-built pre-Reformation church of such completeness in Lincolnshire, and one of only six in England having brick arcades. It consists of clerestoried nave, chancel, aisles, porch and a west tower with stone parapet spire. A lean-to vestry was added during the major restoration of the 19th Century. The interior is almost wholly plaster-coated and lime washed.
The Church dates chiefly from the late 15th and early 16th Centuries. Some of the masonry includes 12th Century handmade bricks, and probably Camden from a former Church that was on the same site. You can see the former roof lindy above the tower arch, that implies the Church was altered overtime, and probably had a thatched roof at one time.
The nave has a fine Tudor roof of moulded tie beams and arched braces. Eighteen carved wooden figures of saints are just below the wall posts, each resting on a terracotta corbels.
Twenty two windows come from the late-Perpendicular period. Others are Victorian, including the stained glass “Crucifixion” (Heaton, Butler and Barnet 1872), in the chancel. Those in the clerestory and rare in having carved brick mullions and cupped brick-heads.
The octagonal stone font is 500 years old with 18th Century oak cover. A small carving depicts a demon’s face with pointed ears and protruding tongue. Symbolic of Holy Baptism casting out the devil.
Remains of the rood loft stairway can be seen in the north aisle, adjacent to which is the hexagonal, inlaid Jacobian pulpit of 1702 – bequeathed by Richard Busby whose monogram is on one of the panels. Inlaid representations of the Holy Dove and Tongues of Fire adorn the canopy.
The communion table in the north aisle is from 1694, as are the communion rails in the chancel – both donated by Busby during his lifetime, and made by Noel Angell of London. The parish chest and door to the tower stair-turret are 17th Century.
On the external south wall is a pediment education cartouche to the memory of Gilbert Redhead, a notorious drunkard, who at his own request was buried upright so that it could not be said “here lies drunken Redhead”.
The tower has a ring of 6 bells, and houses the clock winding gear (1890) by Potts of Leeds. Four bells hung in 1770 were recast by John Taylor more than a century later. The tenor was added in 1806 and was cast at the Osborne Foundry in Downham Market, and the treble was added in 1953 and was cast at the John Taylor Foundry. The latter weighs 2cwt and was installed in memory of Lionel Guy Perry, the only Vicar of this Parish to die in office.
For some 200 years the portrait of Lutton’s famous son Richard Busby has hung in the Church. He was born in 1606, and baptised in this Church. He went on to become an influential and celebrated Headmaster of Westminster School. Their he taught many who rose to prominence in the arts, sciences and affairs of church and state. He died in 1695, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
This is a beautiful little church in need of some TLC. I hope they can get the money .
