St Luke's Church is a church in

Tixover Tixover is a small village and civil parish in Rutland. The population of the civil parish at the 2001 census was 174, falling to 163 at the 2011 census. The village's name means 'ridge with young goats'. The second element derives from either th ...

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

. It is a

Grade II* In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed building. The church is close to the

River Welland The River Welland is a lowland river in the east of England, some long. It drains part of the Midlands eastwards to The Wash. The river rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally northeast to Market ...

, now about 3/4 mile from the village of Tixover.

History

The church consists of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, north and south aisles,

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

and tower. The tower dates from the early 12th century and has a bell inscribed ''Sancta Fides Ora Pro Nobis'', which translates as "Holy Faith, pray for us". The nave and chancel are 13th century and the nave is unusually shorter than the chancel. It has slit windows of an unknown date, thought to be either 13th century or perhaps the Tudor period. The 13th-century north doorway is blocked and has a pointed arch. The north aisle roof is higher than the south aisle because the

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

on the south side has three Victorian quatrefoil openings. The south porch dates to the 13th century. The

pew A pew () is a long bench (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview ...

s have poppy head ends, the

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

dates to the 13th century and the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

, which is of Caen stone, dates to 1864. The original stone seats run along the chancel wall. At the southern end is the Dale monument, erected by Margaret Dale, the third wife of Roger Dale (died 1623), to commemorate her husband after he died. It shows Margaret and Roger kneeling each end of a prayer desk with their kneeling daughters at the base. All their hands are missing and one head of the daughters is missing.

Notes

References

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