Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Broughton Astley

A parish church largely dating from the early 14th century, though the chancel is earlier and the spire is Perpendicular in style. The building was restored in 1882 by W. Bassett-Smith of London. It is constructed from random granite rubble with limestone dressings and Swithland slate roofs.

The church comprises a west tower and spire, nave, large north aisle, and chancel. The tower is a massively squat structure with angle buttresses rising through two stages topped by an embattled parapet with corbel-table, surmounted by a recessed later spire with small lucarnes. The paired cusped bell chamber lights are set beneath a pointed arch with hollow chamfered shouldered jambs. A large west window of three lights features finely reticulated tracery. The south wall is buttressed and contains a low-pitched 19th-century gabled porch. The recut tracery here follows a linear Perpendicular style. Paired clerestory lights are set in hollow chamfered arched recesses.

The chancel fabric appears largely to be of earlier, probably 13th-century date: most is constructed of cobble with upper courses of granite. Externally, however, all features are of later date, including a Perpendicular south window and a tiny priests' door with hollow chamfered jambs. A vestry has been added to the south. A string course crosses the east wall below the east window, which is a four-light Victorian renewal in late Decorated style. The north aisle is wide with its own pitched roof and clerestory similarly detailed to the nave. Its windows vary from reticulated to linear forms and appear to be renewals, though the east window is a particularly flowing example of reticulation. The aisle is furnished with buttresses and a string course.

Internally, the north aisle is similar in size to the nave, giving the church an almost double-naved appearance. The west tower arch is largely obscured by the organ but is single-chamfered. The nave arcade comprises four bays with arches having sunk quadrant mouldings. The west respond consists of clustered shafts, while the other piers are octagonal with flat panelled capitals, two of which are ornamented with simple quatrefoils and floral emblems in very low relief. The nave roof with tie beam is Victorian, though some corbel heads appear to be original. The chancel arch has quadrant mouldings but its responds are Victorian. The chancel screen with cross dates from the 1882 restoration.

A piscina apparently surviving from the 13th-century building is a simple foiled recess. An archway to the north chancel chapel has clustered shaft responds and is of shallow pitch with an almost straight-sided arch. A 12th-century pillar piscina in the south aisle features a chevron stem with cable moulding beneath a scalloped squared basin.

Stained glass includes some fragments of 14th-century glass surviving in the north and south windows and the east aisle window. Some fragments are merely floral or heraldic emblems, but there are also two pairs of angels vigorously swinging censers. The chancel north window contains glass of 1866 in a richly coloured medieval-style narrative. A late 19th-century wood reredos in Arts and Crafts idiom is painted blue, green, red and gold, featuring two central figures of kneeling angels in low relief and a frieze of vine motifs with highly stylized lines of foliage. A Victorian font appears to have used the aisle capitals as its inspiration, being octagonal with simple raised floral emblems.