Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Queniborough

This is a parish church of Grade I listed status, largely dating from the late 13th to early 14th century, though containing considerably earlier fabric. The building is constructed of granite and sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings throughout.

The west tower and spire dominate the structure. The tower is built of coursed granite rubble with white ashlar dressings and rises in three stages with angle buttresses. A Perpendicular west doorway is topped by a tall two-light window. The second stage features a clock and square latticed stonework opening, while the bell chamber above has paired traceried lights. A quatrefoil lozenge frieze and corbel table run below the embattled parapet. Rising from this is a tall and very slender needle spire in white stone, recessed above the parapet and decorated with crockets on all angles. Three tiers of lucarnes adorn the spire, the lowest being a triple light opening with triangular head and geometric tracery, all featuring crocketted gables.

The nave has a clerestory and two aisles, with a separate chancel. The south aisle is built of coursed sandstone rubble with a near-round arched Y-traceried west window featuring corbel heads. The south wall is rendered and buttressed, with some buttresses being relatively recent additions. A low-pitched porch shelters the south door. Three decorated early 14th-century windows with uncusped three-light ogees and stone corbel heads line the south wall, though some tracery has been renewed. The aisle displays a stone plinth and eaves cornice.

The Perpendicular clerestory is of coursed granite rubble with three-light windows bearing hood moulds and a concave chamfer or splay. The east wall retains the impression of an earlier steeply pitched chancel roof.

The chancel represents the earliest part of the building, constructed of coursed granite rubble or cobble. Its south wall contains two Decorated traceried lights with corbel heads. The east wall is rendered over rubble, and significantly features a fragment of sill course intersected by the east window, which comprises three lancets. In the north wall stands one Decorated window and one small round arched opening of late Saxon or early Norman date, with the arched head cut from a single stone. A continuous sill band runs across the north wall and connects with the fragment on the east wall, suggesting the east wall was partially rebuilt when its window was inserted and that the main chancel fabric dates to the late Saxon or early Norman period.

The north aisle is buttressed and features three windows with quatrefoils above three trefoiled lights, all with hood moulds and corbel heads. The north doorway has a moulded ogee archway on triple chamfered piers. The north-east angle of the nave displays large rough quoins in its lower section.

Internally, the nave contains an arcade of four bays with round piers and double chamfered arches. The south arcade has circular capitals, while the north shows some nail head decoration; the north-east respond is partially cut away. The west bay is filled by low modern wood partitions. A blocked triple chamfered arch leads to the tower, above which the impression of an earlier steeply pitched nave roof is visible. The Perpendicular nave roof features moulded tie beams with ornately carved and picturesque central bosses depicting beasts and other figures, with smaller foliate bosses positioned by purlins. The aisle roofs are rougher in construction.

A wide early 14th-century double chamfered chancel arch separates the chancel, which is accessed via a doorway to the former rood screen in the north wall. A Perpendicular wood chancel screen features traceried openwork upper panels above a vine frieze and lower panels with foliate tracery pattern, with three panels on each side of a centrally positioned finely worked archway. The chancel walls are of exposed rubble. A piscina occupies the south side and an aumbrey the north. Both south windows sit within full-height recesses, while the earlier north window displays a deep single splay. A low-pitched Perpendicular timber roof with moulded tie beams covers the chancel.

The plain font, probably dating to the 13th century, comprises a heavy round basin on a round stem. The chancel contains stained glass including an east window of 1918 executed in the style of Burne Jones and two others from the 1920s. A wall memorial tablet carved with inscription and a rampant lion is positioned below the north-east arcade respond and dates to 1586. A brass memorial to Margaret Bury, who died in 1633, is also present.