Church Of St Mary Magdalene

Church of St Mary Magdalene, Mitford

Parish church of exceptional architectural significance, spanning from the late 12th century to the Victorian period. The building was substantially remodelled in the 13th century, possibly following the burning of the village by King John in 1216. The transepts date to the 14th century. Major restoration and reconstruction took place in 1874–75, undertaken by R.J. Johnson of Newcastle, which involved rebuilding the south aisle, adding a west tower, clerestorey and porch. The medieval portions are constructed of squared stone, whilst the 19th-century additions are of ashlar, all beneath red tile roofs.

The church comprises a nave with west tower, a four-bay south aisle, south porch, transepts, and a chancel with north organ chamber. The tower features an octagonal south-west stair turret with loop lights and pyramidal cap. Below the belfry is a chamfered set-back with sill and parapet strings. The west window displays Y-tracery with small two-light windows above; the bell openings are two-light under circular sound holes. An octagonal stone broach spire with gabled lucarnes crowns the tower.

The nave's south aisle wall displays stepped angle buttresses and a sill string. The projecting south-west porch has a double-chamfered arch. Single and paired lancet windows appear in the aisle and clerestorey. A chevron-moulded string above the aisle roof is largely of 19th-century date; at the east end, traces of an attached angle shaft remain. The north nave wall contains 13th-century masonry with three lancets and a blocked square-headed door under a relieving arch, alongside 19th-century chamfered string and lancet clerestorey windows.

The low transepts each have a gable-end window of two trefoiled ogee lights. The south transept's window is surmounted by the Mitford arms—three moles dormant—positioned above and between the lights. The chancel's south wall extends six bays with double plinth, strings and a chamfered eaves cornice. A 12th-century priest's door in the fourth bay, possibly reset, features an arch of two enriched orders with the outer order on shafts bearing scalloped capitals. Lancet windows with chamfered hoods and a low-side window with pointed head light the chancel. The east end is lit by triple lancets with a 19th-century vesica above. Two lancets on the north flank a section of wall bearing traces of an earlier sacristy, the western lancet being of 19th-century date. High-pitched roofs with coped gables topped by finial crosses and openwork ridge on the nave complete the external treatment.

Interior

The south arcade is a 12th-century feature comprising four round moulded arches on round piers with scalloped capitals and bases featuring broad angle spurs; the western respond is of 19th-century date and semi-octagonal in form. A similar arch opens to the north transept, its west respond capital carved with foliage. The south transept contains a small piscina and the shafted jamb of an arch to a former apse. A triple-chamfered arch to the tower supports a groined vault. The chancel arch is of 19th-century date but incorporates earlier moulded responds. Triple sedilia and a piscina in a square-moulded recess occupy the chancel. Eastern lancets display shafted jambs and moulded rear arches; 12th-century outer shafts and a chevron-moulded impost string enhance their decoration.

Fittings and Furnishings

The chancel contains a Reveley monument of 1622, comprising a wall tablet inscribed '...REST BARTRAM IN THIS HOUSE OF CLAY/REVELEY UNTO THE LATTER DAY' within an elaborate surround, above an effigy on an altar tomb. The south transept houses a Romanesque wall monument to Bertram Osbaldeston Mitford, died 1842. An early medieval bell hangs at the west end of the nave. A 17th- or 18th-century headstone with crowned death's head and a medieval inscribed slab are located in the south aisle. The 19th-century fittings include a font, openwork pulpit, low chancel screen with wrought-iron gate, richly carved canopied stalls, organ front, reredos bearing figures of Saints Aidan and Cuthbert, and Minton tiles in the sanctuary.