THE CHURCH RESTORATION
Reverend M O Norman was rector
of Harby from October 2 1852 to is death on May 28 1899. During
this time the church was restored He kept a book of minutes of the
Harby church restoration committee which is held in the Record Office
for Leicestershire and Rutland, reference DE 3498/5. From this we
know that the Architect was Mr Johnson, the builder was Mr Hayes.
Permission to carry out the work was obtained from the bishop by a
Faculty dated March 191874, reference DE/772/41. This tells
us that it was decided to use “local stone for the walling and Ancaster
stone for dressed work doorways window copings – that in the restoration
of stonework it was intended to follow strictly the original designs and
all mouldings and other parts which were decayed would be exactly
reproduced.”
Decorative tiles were laid
around the alter at the east end of the chancel - '1875 May 16. Minton’s
man came and commenced laying down the encaustic tiles in the chancel
and finished the same on Monday May 23.' These are now much damaged and
are covered by the carpet but click here to see what they look
like.
From his observations during the
restoration rev Norman wrote a brief history of the building reference
DE 3489/3.
History of Harby church by M O Norman January 1877.
‘Originally it consisted of small nave and chancel – both of which had
high pitched roofs and was without tower, clerestory or aisles or porch.
The original pitch of the nave roof may still be traced inside the
church on the wall above the chancel arch and the pitch of the chancel
by the end of the weather moulding outside the chancel which may be seen
on both sides of the chancel close to where it joins onto the nave. The
chancel in this form was built in what is known as the early English
style of architecture and was probably completed in the reign of Henry
III who began to reign in the year 1216. After this the following
changes took place. First the chancel was altered, the walls were raised
and high windows were put in, the east window belongs to that style of
architecture called the decorated and was put up certainly by not later
than the reign of Edward III who reigned from 1327 – 1377. Somewhat late
the tower was built and stood as a separate building as may be inferred
from the fact that it has buttresses at the four corers and is joined on
to the nave without any stones connecting the one to the other. The body
of the nave was taken down and was rebuilt with arches and a clerestory
above and aisles, the isles being joined on, as may be still seen,
somewhat clumsily to the ends of the nave which were left standing.
These last changes which brought the chancel into this state were
probably completed not later than 1450 in the reign of Henry VI and from
that time no change of any importance was made until the late work of
restoration. We are therefore worshipping where our ancestors for six
hundred years have worshipped before us, there they were baptised and
married and around which ‘the forefathers of the Hamlet sleep’.’
It was during this restoration that
corbels with plant designs were put in to carry the new roof timbers in
the chancel, the south and the north aisle. We are grateful to Professor
Jean Givens for kindly commenting on these which she says are not in a
mediaeval style and, for instance the rose in the south aisle shows a
recent variety with a raised centre not found in mediaeval times. To see
these click on
The Chancel
The South Aisle
The North Aisle
Click on Rameses the grasshopper 
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Copyright
© 2000 Harby Limited, All rights reserved.
Revised:
March 07, 2008
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