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 in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town. Rutland has a ...

. It is a

Grade II* In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

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 Source (river), rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally nort ...

, 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 (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and tower. The tower dates from the early 12th century and has a bell inscribed ''Sancta Fides Ora Pro Nobis'', (Latin for “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 A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...

on the south side has three

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

quatrefoil openings. The south porch dates to the 13th century. The pews have poppy head ends, the

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

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, accesse ...

, 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 (d. 1623), in commemoration of him. It shows Margaret and Roger kneeling at each end of a prayer desk with their kneeling daughters at the base. All their hands are missing, as is the head of one of the daughters.

Notes

References

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