"The church of ST. BOTOLPH consists of chancel 19 ft. 4 in. by 17 ft. 9 in., aisleless nave 38 ft. 9 in. by 18 ft., south porch, and west tower 5 ft. 10 in. square, all these measurements being internal. The tower is surmounted by a broach spire.
The chancel is modern, having been entirely rebuilt in 1871, but the nave is substantially of early 13th-century date. The tower and spire and the porch are of the 14th century, towards the end of which period, or early in the 15th century, the nave walls were heightened by the addition of a clearstory. All the walls are plastered internally.
The chancel has a high-pitched stone-slated eaved roof and diagonal angle buttresses. The fourcentred east window is apparently an old one re-used, and is of 15th-century date, of four cinquefoiled lights, but without tracery; in the south wall is a modern two-light window, but the north wall is blank. The pointed piscina recess, and a rectangular aumbry on the north side, belong to the former chancel. The arch to the nave is modern.
The nave is of rubble, but its only original architectural features are the south doorway and two 13thcentury windows, one on each side of the porch. Near the east end of the south wall is a small squareheaded window of late date, probably inserted to light the reading desk. The south doorway has a semicircular arch of two orders, the inner with a round moulding, resting on moulded imposts, the outer chamfered order on nook-shafts with capitals of early conventional foliage and moulded bases. The window west of the porch is a plain lancet with hood-mould, but that to the east is of two pointed lights with uncusped circle in the head, a good example of early plate tracery. There are no windows in the lower part of the north wall, and a blocked roundheaded doorway is apparently not ancient. The clearstory windows, three on each side, are squareheaded and of two trefoiled lights, with hood-moulds. On the east face of the tower is the line of the former high-pitched roof of the nave. The existing lowpitched oak roof is ancient, but of very plain character, with chamfered principals; it is of four bays and lead-covered without parapets. The porch is also leaded, with flat-pitched coped gable, diagonal buttresses, and pointed doorway of two chamfered orders. There are wooden gates, and on the gable is a sundial dated 1694.
The tower is of three stages with moulded plinth and pairs of buttresses stopping at the middle stage. The west window consists of a single trefoiled opening, but on the north and south the lower stage is blank. In the middle stage there is a small square-headed window on the south side only; the pointed bellchamber windows are of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head. There is no vice. The arch to the nave is of two chamfered orders, the inner resting on head corbels, the outer continued to the ground. On its west side the arch is blocked by a studded partition. The short broach spire has plain angles and two tiers of gabled lights on its cardinal faces. The lower lights have two trefoiled openings with a quatrefoil in the head; the upper are single. There is a band at the level of the upper lights. The finial and vane are modern.
The font consists of a plain octagonal bowl with curved sides, dated 1797.
The plain square pews were 'introduced some years before the tide for church restoration had set in.'
In the chancel are memorials to George Bridges Brudenell, of Ayston (d. 1801), his sister Caroline (d. 1803) relict of Sir Samuel Fludyer, bt., and her son George Fludyer (d. 1837). The Brudenell vault was closed in 1871. In the nave are memorials to George Godfrey (d. 1813) and his great-nephew George Godfrey Ward (d. 1819).
At the west end of the nave is a barrel organ by T. C. Bates and Son, London.
There are two bells in the tower, the smaller dated 1677, and the other a 16th-century bell by Thomas Newcombe (II) of Leicester, inscribed 'Thoma.'
The plate consists of a cup and cover paten of 1638–9, with maker's mark B.F., the cup inscribed 'St. Botolph, Wardley,' and the paten '1638 Ex dono Joh. Roberts 48'; and an undated paten with maker's mark F.W., inscribed 'In usu ecclesiæ parochialis de Wardley Rutland, Deus dedit.' There are also a pewter dish and flagon.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms and marriages 1574–1703, burials 1574–1709; (ii) baptisms 1703–1802, marriages 1703–54, burials 1709–1802; (iii) baptisms and burials 1803–1812; (iv) marriages 1757–1812."
SOURCE - (
visit link)