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I Location

II General Description

St Laurence's has a three-bay aisled nave without clerestoreys. The N aisle and arcade date from 1850, the S has elaborately carved 12th-13thc. capitals, at the very least heavily restored in the 19thc., carried on piers of a variety of forms. The arches above are 13thc. The chancel was rebuilt by J. M. Derrick in 1848, with no chapels or vestries. The W tower is 12thc. in its lower stages, with a plain 12thc. doorway to the S, but heavy buttresses and a top storey were added, probably in the 15thc. In 1999 a kitchen and lavatory block was added to the N of the tower, communicating with the N aisle. The church also contains a font, stylistically 12thc. but suspiciously crisp and regularly carved.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) W tower, S doorway

Round headed, one order, completely plain and continuous.

Dimensions

IV Interior Features

2. Arcades

c. Nave

(i) S arcade

Three bays with 12thc. supports and 13thc. arches. The arches are pointed and of two orders to N and S. Each order is chamfered with stops between the chamfers rather than on them and on the N face only.

E respond: Demi-octagonal pier on a double roll base. The capital and impost continue the demi-octagonal plan. The necking is chamfered, the capital stiff-leaf with one trefoil leaf rising from the necking at each angle, and one on the centre of each face. The impost has a deep hollow and an angle roll at the bottom of the face.

Pier 1: The pier is cylindrical with a low roll base with roll necking above. The capital and impost are square with chamfered angles in plan. The impost profile is the same as the E respond. The capital is a block, carved with a basketweave design on its N face; the other faces carved with two units of waterleaf per face. On the chamfer at the SW is a compass-drawn knot at the top, and below it an octofoil daisy in a circle.

Pier 2: The pier is compound: square in plan with keeled shafts at the angles and a pair of half-shafts on each face, all coursed with the pier. Each element has its own double-roll base. The capital is square in plan with an abacus chamfered at the angles, and roll neckings corresponding to the elements of the pier. The impost is as pier 1. The capital is treated as an attached set of tall capitals corresponding to the pier shafts. On each bell, three broad leaves rise from the necking, and on the S and E faces, at the top, these burgeon into a tangled mass of stiff-leaf. On the W face the foliage is more formal, with a pair of large inverted palmettes growing down from the abacus, and consisting of a central grooved leaf with a pair of furled leaves in the enclosing stems to either side. The N face has a pair of similar palmettes, but interlaced and the right way up. There are heads on the four chamfered angles. To the SE is a fleshy human head with narrow eyes and drilled pupils, a frowning brow, straight nose and small mouth with lips slightly parted. To the SW a devilish beast head with pointed ears, a concave snout with a central ridge for the nose, bulbous undrilled eyes and a wide mouth open to show rows of teeth. To the NW a simply carved human head with a fringe of straight hair and a short chin-beard, both indicated by parallel grooves. The eyes are bulbous, the nose broad with nostrils shown, a long upper lip and a straight mouth. Finally at the NE is a smaller head, similar in type to that at the NW but without hair or beard. To the L of this, on the E face of the capital, is a quadruped turning its catlike head back to look behind it, towards a wingless serpent with a body decorated with a row of nailhead, and a knotted tail. The serpent's fishlike head is alongside the human head at the SE angle of the capital.

W respond: pier and impost as E respond. The capital is carved with interlacing palmettes, one per face, of the type carved on the N face of pier 2.

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

(i)

At W end of S aisle. The bowl is square with a multi-scalloped lower rim, and faces each carved with a trefoil in each shield. Each face is identical, containing a row of flat intersecting round arches with pellets on the arches - four arches and two halves per face. Above this a row of six round stilted arches with a trefoil clover leaf in each. The decoration is geometrical rather than architectural. The bowl stands on a shaft carved with vertical rolls of nested chevron, with a plaited cable lower moulding and a spurred base on a square plinth. The interior is circular and unlined.

Dimensions

VII History

In 1086 Brafield-in-the-Green was apparently disputed between Countess Judith, who held three virgates and whose tenant Winemar held one virgate, and the Bishop of Bayeux's tenant William, with three virgates claimed for the Countess by Nigel. No church is noted in any of these holdings.

Dedication to St Lawrence recorded in 1529.

VIII Comments/Opinions

The decoration of the arcade capitals includes features associated with the 12thc. (basketweave, palmette decoration, knotwork and waterleaf) alongside a repertoire of motifs and forms which belong well into the 13thc. (inhabited stiff-leaf). The impost forms are more likely in the 13thc. than the 12thc. When the arches were replaced in the 13thc., it seems likely that the imposts were too, along with the whole of pier 2 and all the capitals except that of pier 1. The W respond capital and its impost were either heavily restored or (more probably) replaced in the 19thc. The E respond is largely original, but restored. Pevsner described the font as 'big, Norman', but the present author is convinced that it is a 19thc. piece. The blocks are very precisely cut (see dimensions of bowl), and the carving is entirely regular on each face. Furthermore it shows no signs of lock damage whatsoever, which would be expected in any 12thc. or 13thc. font.

IX Bibliography