St Botolph

Tower added and S wall of the nave rebuilt and enlarged in the early C14.

Further work in the post medieval period, now demolished.

The tower and spire are mid C14.

The nave S wall is also C14, and has three large windows, all heavily restored.

Those to the E of the S door apparently follow earlier tracery patterns and have early C14 reticulation with hexagons and spherical triangles and hood-moulds with headstops.

The tracery in the window to the W of the door was replaced in a C14 style in the C19, when probably C16 or C17 uncusped, transomed lights were removed.

Good, early C14 S door with many fine mouldings, foliate capitals, head stops, and at the top a boss of a man putting his tongue out.

There are late C14 windows with triangular heads in the N aisle

a late C12 style doorway with a pointed, chamfered opening, chamfered imposts and a hood mould.

The chancel of 1862-3 is polygonal, and is in a C13 Westminster style, with two light geometric traceried windows.

A richly carved inscription cornice records its construction in memory of Charles and Elizabeth Kirk, the parents of the architect and builder, Charles Kirk the younger.

The NE transeptal vestry is in a late C13 style and has a good E window with intersecting Y-tracery with drooping trefoils.

It is possible that the arcade was raised in the C14 to match the height of the S windows, which are notably large from the inside.

Low, C14 tower arch of three continuous chamfered orders, closed with a solid, wooden screen.

Broad chancel arch of 1862-3 in a simple C13 style with short, round responds with moulded capitals and a chamfered arch.

It has a richly tiled floor and dado, and a good roof with a carved and painted inscription.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES Two tiny, probably C14 piscinas in the nave.

Polygonal C14 font with tracery and foliage on the tapering bowl.

C19 pulpit and low chancel screen with good Decorated-style tracery.

Excellent C19 encaustic and glazed tiles in the chancel, including a range of geometric patterns on the floor, and wheat and grape motifs on the dado.

Additional good geometric tiling in the nave around the font base.

Good C19 and early C20 glass, including fine chancel windows by Ward and Hughes, one in the nave signed H Hughes, another by Burlison and Grylls, and an interesting window of 1917 in the N aisle to members of the Barrett family.

Some good monuments in the churchyard, including tall crosses to members of the Sharpe and Kirk families.

Also a group of metal markers for members of the Shannon family, including the artist Charles Shannon , a well-known portraitist and figure painter.

HISTORY Two churches in Quarrington are mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, one of which was presumably the present church (the other probably was the lost church of All Saints, Sleaford).

It has no visible Anglo-Saxon fabric, but the very narrow chancel arch shown on a mid C19 plan might have been pre-Conquest.

The earliest visible fabric is now the early C13 N arcade, but the long E respond suggests that it was added to an existing nave of uncertain, earlier date.

Irregularities in the plan as existing in the mid C19 before the rebuilding of 1862-3, notably the asymmetric placement of the chancel arch in relation to the width of the nave and the tower, and the thickening of the SE and SW corners of the nave walls indicate that the nave was widened to the S, probably in the C14 when the tower was built.

A S porch was added at an uncertain, probably late or post medieval date, and the C14 SW nave window was apparently remodelled with uncusped lights

a transom in the C16 or even C17.

The chancel was rebuilt and made smaller in the post-Reformation period, and a drawing of 1805 shows it with a range of a late C12 or early C13 lancet

two late C14 windows with square heads, presumably reset.

The N aisle was rebuilt and enlarged in 1848 and new furnishings including a pulpit, screens and what were apparently low box pews including some facing S, were installed in 1849.

St Botolph, Quarrington: A Short History (n.d., early C21) Pevsner, N and Harris, J., Buildings of England, Lincolnshire , 605 Plans before and after Kirk's restoration, drawing of 1805 and mid C19 water colour, all preserved in the church REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St Botolph, Sleaford, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Parish church of the C13 or earlier, with an early C13 N aisle, C14 tower and spire. * Two excellent C14 windows and a very good C14 door in the S nave wall. * Chancel rebuilt and church restored in 1862-3 by Charles Kirk. * Good C19 and C20 glass.

Window in memory of William Carelton Barrett who died in 1917 aged 56 when his ship, the S. S. Stuart Prince was torpedoed off the North coast of Ireland. Also in memory of his wife Letitia (who placed the window) and their daughter Eileen who died aged 5 in 1901. Details of the window are unknown.

© Julian P Guffogg