Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building in the East Riding of Yorkshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 25 January 1985. Church.

Church of St Mary

WRENN ID
half-attic-summer
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
East Riding of Yorkshire
Constituency
Bridlington and The Wolds MP: Charlie Dewhirst (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
25 January 1985
Type
Church
Address
Church of St Mary, Driffield
OS grid reference
TA 009 578
Coordinates
54.00636, -0.46062
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building with origins dating back to the 12th century. The nave and chancel were rebuilt in 1889 by Temple Moore, while the west tower dates from the 15th century. The church features a two-bay chancel and a four-bay nave, which includes a north porch and a west tower. The tower has two stages, a chamfered plinth, diagonal buttresses, and a hollow-chamfered string at the belfry level. The west window consists of two pointed lights, and the belfry has two-light openings with curvilinear tracery, along with a corbel table adorned with masks at the parapet. The roof is pyramidal and topped with a weathercock.

The nave has a chamfered plinth and buttresses with offsets, and its windows are two-light with cusped tracery. There is a blocked south door to the nave featuring attached shafts and a pointed head with keel moulding and ball ornament, topped with a raised coped gable. The chancel includes a round-headed south door with a continuous chamfer and an east window with three lights showcasing elaborate curvilinear tracery, flanked by buttresses and topped with a raised coped gable and a cross finial.

Inside, there is a 12th-century tower arch, seemingly inserted into an older structure, with three human faces carved on each impost. The nave contains a nine-sided tub font and an early 18th-century pulpit. In the north of the chancel, there is a 19th-century plaque commemorating the burial of King Alfred of Northumbria in AD 705. On the opposite wall, a plaque records the death of Lora, Viscountess Downe (died 1812), with an inscription that refers readers to the Gentleman's Magazine for May 1812 for further details about her life. A large number of sculptured fragments, including a pre-Conquest interlace slab, have been incorporated into the exterior fabric of the nave.

Local climate

Church of St Mary sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 77% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 68% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 30 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 64% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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