TQ 65 SE MEREWORTH THE STREET 2/29 Church of St Lawrence 25.8.59 - I Parish Church 1744-46 for 7th Earl of Westmorland after the old Church had been taken down to make way for the Castle. Very probably by Henry Flitcroft. Temple church, taking up ideas laid down by Jones and by Hawksmoor & Archer in the 50 New Churches Commission, purified by neo-Palladian Theory. Ragstone blocks with sandstone ashlar quoins and dressings. Tiled slate roof with colossally deep eaves and pediment ends. West tower copied almost directly from Flitcroft St Giles-in-the-Fields. Square town base with arched belfry openings on west and with urns atop corners. Octagonal clock stage with pediment aedicules on each side. Columned and balustraded octagonal 3rd stage supporting octagonal pedestal of eight-sided obelisk like tower. Semi-circular Tuscan west porch with eaves cornice around. 7 bay nave with key-blocks to windows. East with 3 windows with arched central one, giving effect of Palladian window. Internal window in east pediment. Oculus in west pediment. Interior with barrel-vaulted nave three times wider than aisles themselves. More a series of square bays. 6 bays with close-set Doric columns carrying flat entablature. Attached half-columns against all four walls. Columns painted to look like marble, ceilings with coffering. Tomb to Sir Thomas Faut: d.1589 Erected 1639. 2 pairs of Corinthian columns supporting entablature curving forward in the centre with putti below. 2 reclining effigies beneath with kneeling sons. Attached to exterior wall to south, Monument to Francesco Sleter, decorative painter, d.1775. See M Whiffor, Smart and Georgian Churches outside London, London 147/48. Listing NGR: TQ6585553714