Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, restored in 1876-7 by Jolley and Evans. The building is constructed of ashlar and coursed squared stone with some rubble, featuring a chamfered plinth and shallow leaded roofs. The nave, aisles and tower have embattled parapets, while the chancel has plain parapets. The nave and aisle parapets are continuous.

The plan comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a lower chancel, a west tower and a south porch.

The 15th-century ashlar west tower has two stages and stepped full-height clasping buttresses to all corners with a deep moulded plinth. The west elevation displays a pointed two-light window with deeply chamfered surrounds and restored panel tracery, together with a small staircase window to the north. The north and south elevations are blank. Above, deeply chamfered pointed louvred two-light bell openings appear on all sides with returned hoodmoulds and a continuous chamfered sill band. A coved string course with a central gargoyle to the north side sits above this, and embattled parapets feature crenellated bases for corner pinnacles, now missing. A thin octagonal spire rises above with four plain lucarnes near the base and trefoil-headed lucarnes near the top.

The north aisle is 14th century, built of coursed stone with a continuous moulded sill band. Its west elevation has a low blocked segment-headed door with a cusped tracery two-light window above. The west corner contains a stepped clasping buttress, and the north elevation has a blocked pointed double-chamfered doorcase to the west, plus two reticulated three-light windows with ogee-headed hoodmoulds. Between the windows and toward the east end are stepped buttresses. The east elevation has a similar four-light reticulated tracery window. A continuous coved string course runs above, beneath the parapets.

The chancel to the east has two thin 13th-century lancets on the north elevation, a four-centred arched east window containing three stepped 20th-century lancets within a returned hoodmould and flanked by corner buttresses, and three chamfered lancets on the south elevation with a low chamfered doorcase between the western windows. The western lancet has been lengthened.

The east elevation of the south aisle has a pointed three-light lancet-type window with a large tracery circle at the top, possibly 13th century. The east corner has a clasping buttress with a gableted top, similar to the west corner arrangement. The south elevation displays two tall three-light 13th-century stepped lancet pointed windows with hoods and a central stepped gableted buttress. Beyond to the west is a 17th-century timber-framed porch on a stone plinth with close studding to the east side and rebuilt in brick to the west side, featuring slated wooden gates to the front. The west end of the aisle has a chamfered lancet with hoodmould. A coved string course above has intermittent nailhead decoration. The inner doorcase is 13th century, a pointed double-chamfered arch with a restored medieval door.

The interior has three-bay north and south arcades with double-chamfered arches on high columns and octagonal responds with moulded capitals. A continuous double-chamfered 15th-century tower arch and a wide 14th-century moulded chancel arch on octagonal responds span the space. Cambered 19th-century roofs cover all parts.

The chancel contains triple 13th-century sedilla with semicircular-headed arches on octagonal shafts, with a chamfered pointed piscina to the east. Both features have a stepped moulded band above that continues around the chancel. The chancel also includes plain oak early 20th-century choir stalls and 19th-century metal and wood altar rails. The nave pews are 20th-century copies based on two robust oak 17th-century pews at the rear of the nave. An octagonal pulpit, also 17th century with carved oak panels reset on a 20th-century stone base, stands in the nave. The south aisle has an elaborately moulded 14th-century piscina with a cusped pointed head, while the north aisle contains a small ogee-headed piscina on the east wall and an alms cupboard in the north wall. A stone font with relief designs to each side of the octagonal bowl is dated 1661 and has a much restored contemporary carved oak cover. The tower features two painted charity plaques dated 1906 and 17th-century panelled wooden gates across the arch with oak acorn finials and shaped 'H' hinges.

Two fine monuments to the Sale family adorn the interior. One is a wall memorial in the chancel, executed in painted alabaster with a classical aedicule surmounted by steeple finials and a central achievement, commemorating Dorothy and Richard Sale who died in 1615 and 1625 respectively. The other monument, in the nave, is unusual in presenting life-sized figures of Richard Sale and his wife, together with smaller figures of their children behind, all kneeling in a row. Panels with rusticated ends stand between the figures, with the two either side of the wife surmounted by babies in their cots. Above are four shields: the northern one bearing a skull and crossbones, the southern one depicting a figure of death, one central shield that has decayed, and another inscribed 'Repaired by Elizabeth, Daughter and Heiress of William Sale, great grandson of the above Richard Sale from William his second son by Judith Oliver his second wife, 1727'.

Additional memorials include a small slate and marble wall memorial on the south wall of the south aisle to Richard Storer who died in 1840, a copper plaque to John Greatorex who died in 1936, a marble war memorial on the west wall of the nave, and a lead plaque on the north aisle inscribed 'Robert Hill, Richard Brian CW, George Sills, Donington P 1703'. The chancel retains 19th-century stained glass in all windows, while the nave windows have clear glass.