Church Of Saint Mary

Church of Saint Mary

A parish church of limestone and ironstone rubble with squared blocks, limestone ashlar dressings, and brick porch elements. The building spans the late 12th century to 15th century, with significant 18th and 19th-century work.

The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay nave with three-bay aisles, north and south porches, a two-bay chancel, and a single-bay chapel adjoining the south aisle.

The tower is in two stages. The lower stage, dating from the late 12th to early 13th century, has been fitted with 19th-century buttresses and features a restored west lancet window with hood-mould and a lancet to the south. Clockfaces occupy the north and west faces. A string course runs around the stage. The upper stage, from the later 13th century, contains restored pointed two-light belfry openings with 19th-century Y-tracery, original hood-moulds and headstops. The tower is topped by a projecting embattled parapet with crocketed gabled coping and crocketed angle pinnacles.

The north aisle, which has a 13th-century arcade and north door, features an original west buttress and 19th-century north buttresses. Windows include 19th-century square-headed two-light traceried examples, a similar east window with restored tracery, and a restored pointed two-light west window with reticulated tracery, hood-mould and weathered headstops.

The south aisle dates from the 14th century and contains restored buttresses and square-headed two-light windows. Two 19th-century three-light south windows are present. The former chapel adjoining the south side of the chancel has a four-centred west window with three cinquefoiled lights and restored mullions, plus a similar 19th-century south window with hood-mould and headstops.

The nave clerestory dates from the 15th century and contains three square-headed three-light windows with a single four-centred arch three-light window to the east bay, all 19th-century restored.

The 15th-century south chapel adjoins the south aisle. A south porch, dating from the 18th century, features an outer segmental brick arch in partly Flemish bond and a pointed wave-moulded inner arch. The north porch dates from 1887–88 and has angle buttresses, a pointed moulded outer arch flanked by buttress shafts with crocketed pinnacles, and single traceried side windows, with a pointed chamfered inner arch decorated with weathered hood-mould and headstops.

The chancel was rebuilt in 1869–70. It features a chamfered pointed door to the north and a restored 15th-century square-headed two-light cinquefoiled window to the north. A 19th-century pointed three-light traceried window occupies the east end.

Internally, the church features a tall pointed triple-chamfered tower arch with a damaged dogtooth hood-mould and inner order on octagonal responds. The four-bay north arcade comprises pointed double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers and responds with plain moulded capitals and bases on square plinths. The south arcade is similar, with moulded capitals (perhaps re-cut in the 17th century) and moulded bases on tall square plinths. The fifth eastern bay is wider and corresponds to the former Tyrwhitt Chapel. The south-west respond was rebuilt with a section of shaft on a moulded corbel, supported by a carved winged angel holding a shield. A re-set Romanesque carved head corbel adjoins it, with fragments of incised 13th-century gravestones re-set in the wall below. The south-east pier carries a pair of carved heads above the capital and a moulded corbel base for a former statue; a similar corbel stands on the neighbouring pier.

The north aisle includes a squint with a piscina below, a square-headed door to the rood loft above, and former roof corbels, one a mutilated carved head.

Monuments in the chancel include a 16th-century ashlar altar tomb (ascribed by an 1880 plaque to Robert Tyrwhitt of Kettleby, died 1548), re-set from the south chapel. It has a moulded plinth, a carved relief frieze with shields in quatrefoils alternating with traceried panels, and a panel behind with indents for brasses below a straight-sided four-centred arch and frieze of pointed quatrefoils. A mid-18th-century ashlar wall tablet to Robert Draper and others bears a carved Gothick surround. A marble wall tablet of 1757 commemorates Thomas Waterworth, schoolmaster of Brigg, with an inscription in Latin. A marble wall tablet to William Watson of 1773 features a pilastered surround. 17th and 18th-century floor slabs are present.

Other furnishings include a 13th-century octagonal font with an inscribed geometric traceried panel on its bowl, supported on eight shafts and a later base. Fragments of 14th-century glass survive in the north aisle. A tapestry of 1882 hangs at the west end of the nave. A painted board of 1687 at the west end of the south aisle records a bequest of Ellen Trippe.

The roofs are lead and ashfelt with a slate roof to the north porch. The south porch is of brick. Restorations in 1869–70 included rebuilding the chancel, re-roofing, re-flooring, re-seating and repairs to windows. The nave was re-roofed and other roofs re-covered in the 1950s. Brick patching is evident on the north aisle. A drawing by C. Nattes from 1795 is held in the Banks Collection at Lincoln City Library.