Monument record ERL 042 - Church of St Laurence

Originally, this church was a dependent chapel upon the Parish Church of St Peter, but it has been used as the Parish Church of Eriswell since the dereliction of St Peter's. The oldest part of the church is the Early English S aisle and chapel. In the walls are worked stones of Norman style used as rubble, and there is no reason to suppose that it stands elsewhere than on the site of the Domesday church of Coclesworth (S1). In the Domesday Book, mention is made of the church of 'Coceleswarda'. The name of the place last appears as Coclesworth in 1301, thereafter the settlement is known as Eriswell (S2). The early C13 portion may be presumed to have been the complete church of that time; with a nave of 36 by 16 feet and a chancel 20 by 16 feet, it was smaller than the parish church. During the first half of the C14, the present tower, nave and chancel were added, increasing the area of the church. The old chancel was screened off to become the chapel of St John the Baptist. (S1).
The chancel is Decorated. The piscina and sedilia contained within it are C14. There is an aumbry to the east of the piscina. In the NE corner, bisecting the angle, is a stone shelf and above it are two square openings with jambs rebated for doors. Each opening gives access to a separate compartment, the bottoms of which are about 15 feet below the sill. Both are covered with another wide shelf and the whole is surrounded with C14 moulded jambs which originally terminated in an arch above, forming a canopy to the whole. These cannot have been normal aumbries as an aumbry exists on the S side of the chancel. Perhaps the whole was intended as an Easter Sepulchre and reliquary chambers. Perhaps the compartments held Holy Oils or relics. It is also possible that this was a sacrament house, where the sacrament was reserved until it became customary to use a hanging pyx. The top tracery of the two W chancel windows is filled with fragments of medieval glass. The E window has two intersected ogee arches which carry a pointed oval (S3). Further architectural detail in (S3).
The church is in archdeaconry of Sudbury and the deanery of Mildenhall. Status: rectory.
(N.B. Erroneously marked as St Peter's Church on some OS maps.)