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St Bartholomew, Sproxton, Leicestershire

Location
(52°48′53″N, 0°43′52″W)
Sproxton
SK 856 249
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Leicestershire
now Leicestershire
  • Richard Jewell
  • Ron Baxter
  • Jennifer Alexander
  • Ron Baxter
05 Aug 1990 (RJ), 2 September 2014 (JA)

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Description

Sproxton is a village in the Melton district of NE Leicestershire, 2 miles W of the Lincolnshire border and 7 miles NE of Melton Mowbray. The church stands on the road out of the village to the N, and is an ironstone building consisting of a nave with a S aisle and S transept, chancel with a S chapel and a W tower. The tower is 13thc for the most part, with a late-14thc upper storey with battlements and pinnacles of limestone. The church was restored in 1882-83 by Woodyer who rebuilt the top of the tower, the porch, the S aisle, the chancel arch and the additions to the S of the chancel. Norman evidence of an earlier building survives in the form of chevron voussoirs re-used on the exterior and the capitals re-used by Woodyer in the rebuilt chancel arch. In 2017 a 12thc grave slab was discovered when a new drain was being installed and this is displayed in the church.

History

In 1086 there were 3 holdings listed in Sproxton. 3 carucates were held by Warin from Guy de Craon, with a mill and 15 acres of meadow, and Geoffrey de cambrai held 2 carucates with a mill and 4 acres of meadow. The major tenant in chief, however, was Countess Judith whose 8 carucates were held from her by Hugh Musard. The manor also included another mill meadow 2 furlongs square. and was Hugo de Boby - a local landowner and benefactor of Croxton Abbey - gave the abbot one-third part of the church of Sproxton. during the arch-deaconry, at Leicester, of Baldric (1158-89). This seems to be the earliest mention of the church. Later the other two parts were given to the Abbey as well. (Nichols)

Features

Exterior Features

Exterior Decoration

Miscellaneous

Interior Features

Arches

Chancel arch/Apse arches

Furnishings

Tombs/Graveslabs

Comments/Opinions

The capital reused on the N side of the chancel arch - which was rebuilt in Gothic style by Woodyer 1882-3 - is "moving towards crocket design" (Pevsner). The other is paralleled fairly closely at Twyford (middle capital of arcade). Dating c.1185. The chevron fragments could be earlier. Nichols illustrates a good Anglo Danish cross formerly in the churchyard, which probably indicates a pre-Conquest foundation for the church. The graveslab discovered in 2017 was dated by Aleks McClain, a Senior Lecturer at in the Department of Archaeology at York University, to 1100-50, according to a notice in the church.

Bibliography

Historic England Listed Building, English Heritage Legacy ID: 190300

J. Nichols, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, 4 vols, London 1795 – 1810-11, v2 pt 1, 322-30.

  1. N. Pevsner and E. Williamson, The Buildings of England: Leicestershire and Rutland, New Haven and London 2003, 383-4