Church Of St Mary

PRESTON

SD5429 ST MARY'S STREET 941-1/7/262 (West side) 27/09/79 Church of St Mary

GV II

Church. 1836-8, by John Latham, with transepts and chancel added 1852-3 by E.H. Shellard. Punch-dressed sandstone ashlar, slate roof. Nave on north-south axis with south tower flanked by square wings, east and west transepts, chancel. Romanesque style, with round-headed windows throughout. Tripartite south front formed by 4-stage tower with 3-storeyed 1st stage flanked by wings to the same height and gabled to west and east respectively, each element with clasping pilasters and those of the wings finished with squat pinnacles, each with a round-headed doorway at ground floor, all in Norman style but that in the centre larger and with 3 orders of unorthodox moulding, the centre with 3-light windows on 2 levels (the lower with blind outer lights), the date "MDCCCXXXVI" in raised Gothic lettering between them and a corbel table above, and the wings with one small window to the front, a similar wndow in the side and a 2-light window in the gable. Above this level the tower proceeds in 3 stages successively set back, the 2nd and 3rd with 2-light windows which have cushion capitals to the shafts, and the 3rd (originally replicating turrets at west end of Tewkesbury Abbey) carrying a needle spire with lucarnes mounted on a drum with corner cylinders (from which the pinnacles have been removed). The 5-bay nave has pilaster strips and tall round-headed windows set in blank arches. The transepts have clasping buttresses finished as square 2-stage turrets with blind arcading to the upper and pyramidal caps, the east transept has a round-headed doorway in the centre, and both have round-headed lancets. The chancel, lower than the north gable of the nave, has 3 round-headed lancets and a circular window above. INTERIOR not inspected.

Listing NGR: SD5483529683