Church Of St Mary The Virgin

CROSBY

SJ39NW PARK ROAD 778-1/3/112 (South side) 26/03/73 Church of St Mary the Virgin (Formerly Listed as: PARK ROAD Church of St Mary)

II

Church. 1877-86, by WG Habershon; nave extended 1907. Coursed rock-faced red sandstone with yellow sandstone dressings, blue slate roofs with green slate bands. STYLE: Gothic with some Early English features. PLAN: cruciform plan with uncompleted crossing tower, north and south aisles extended to link with early C20 narthex at west end. EXTERIOR: the tall 3-bay nave, with pilasters, has segmental-pointed clerestory windows of 3 cusped lights, and in the west gable (above the added narthex) a tall stepped 3-light west window with deep double-chamfered reveals. The aisles, now of 5 bays, with sturdy buttresses which have 2 offsets, has windows of two 2-centred arched lights with set-in shafts and hoodmoulds with foliated stops. The narthex at the west end (dated 1907) has in its north side a 2-centred arched double-chamfered doorway framed by Perpendicular-style pilasters, and in the west front 2 similar entrances. The transepts, which are almost as tall as the nave, have angle buttresses and large stepped 3-light windows in their gable walls, with slender shafts and 2 orders of moulding. The chancel has one narrow lancet in the north side (the south side covered by later additions), and a large 3-light east window like those of the transepts. The crossing tower, rising only slightly above the nave and transepts, has small lancets near the corners, and a stepped embattled parapet in lighter masonry. INTERIOR: painted brick walls; 3-bay arcades of quatrefoil columns with shafts, 2-centred arches stepped rather than chamfered; similar arch at west end, open to narthex; tall double-chamfered crossing arches rising from clustered piers, and pulpit integrated with the north-eastern pier; hammerbeam roof trusses rising from large moulded and foliated corbels; chancel with organ and piscina in north wall, sedilia in south wall.

Listing NGR: SJ3251697971