Church Of The Assumption Of St Mary

Church of the Assumption of St Mary

This parish church stands on Church Walk in Hinckley. It dates principally from the early 14th century, though it has undergone significant later additions and restorations.

The church is constructed of coursed freestone blocks. The spire was rebuilt in 1788 by John Cheshire. In the 1870s, major structural work transformed the building: the south aisle was widened and a south transept added in 1875–6, and the north transept was added in 1877–8, both by the architect William Smith, whose work is characterised by rock-faced ashlar. The chancel received restoration in 1863 by William Gillet of Leicester and again in 1877–8 by Ewan Christian. All roofs are of low pitch.

The building comprises a west tower, a five-bay nave with aisles and transeptal chapels, and a two-bay chancel with western chapels.

The west tower, dating from the early 14th century, rises in two stages with angle buttresses. A belfry offset supports a crenellated parapet on a hollow-moulded string containing carved fleurons. The parapet corners are capped by panelled and crocketed pinnacles. At the south-east corner the tower thickens to accommodate a staircase lit by ogee-headed loops. The west doorway is two-centred, and above it sits a four-light window, also two-centred, with cusped intersecting tracery and a scroll-moulded head with block-stops. The belfry openings are tall and two-light transomed, with cinquefoil-headed lights and single reticulation beneath two-centred arches; they are surrounded by concave half round-moulded surrounds. An octagonal steeple with roll-moulded angles rises above, pierced by three tiers of lucarnes.

The aisles have buttresses at the bay divisions, plain parapets with moulded strings and coping, and pointed two-light windows with decorated tracery. The late 15th and early 16th-century clerestory windows each contain three cinquefoil-headed lights beneath a four-centred arch, with hollow chamfered parapet strings and crenellated parapets.

The transepts, added in the 1870s, are double gabled with a three-light window beneath each gable and a central buttress.

The chancel contains pointed side windows of three cinquefoil-headed lights with panel tracery. Its east window has five lights with panel tracery and a hood mould ending in grotesque heads. The chancel chapel windows match the style of those in the aisles and transepts.

The interior contains 14th-century five-bay arcades with double chamfered pointed arches; the outer chamfers terminate in carved heads, those on the north side being medieval and those on the south side likely 19th-century work. Octagonal columns support moulded capitals and bases. A high four-centred tower arch and a high two-centred chancel arch both feature chamfered surrounds. At the east end of each aisle, pointed arches provide access to the transeptal chapels and to the chancel chapel.

The nave roof dates from the 15th or 16th century and features brattished tie beams, each with a carved corbel on the soffit. These tie beams are arch-braced, with braces springing from large wooden corbels carved as angels bearing shields. Panel tracery fills the narrow space between the tie beams and roof. The roof includes one pair of moulded purlins and a moulded ridge piece. The 14th-century roof line, steeply pitched, remains visible on the west wall. Lean-to roofs of 19th-century date in contemporary style were added to the 1870s extensions. The chancel roof, restored, is similar in style to the nave roof except that its brackets spring from wooden shafts standing on corbels.

Fixtures and fittings include a 19th-century west gallery within the tower, supported by a four-centred arch with panelled and carved spandrels and furnished with a Gothic-style gallery rail. Nineteenth-century commandment boards flank the tower arch. A 19th-century stone font has a clustered column base and cylindrical basin.

A parish chest, inscribed "HINCKLEY TOWNE CHEST / AND / 1613 / NOVE / 4", features curved feet and scrolled brackets. A 19th-century rood loft in late Gothic style has pendants alternating with traceried arches and an open-work gallery rail surmounted by a crucifix and flanking figures of Mary Mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. A pointed doorway in the south-east corner of the nave opens to the stair leading to the loft. Adjacent stands a 19th-century octagonal pulpit with marble corner shafts and traceried sides. Good quality 19th-century choir stalls, altar rail and reredos in medieval style complete the furnishings; the reredos contains traceried ogee-headed niches with carvings of Christ at the centre and the Apostles.

A piscina with four-centred arch and chamfered surround is located near drop sill sedilia beneath a south window with cinquefoil-headed panels on the back wall.

Monumental brasses include one of circa 1490 to a civilian and one of his wives, and another to John Oneby, died 1622, within an aedicule with Corinthian columns showing the upper halves of a man and woman with their children depicted beneath.

The east window dates from 1863 and was designed by Sebastian Edwards, made by Chance. The north-east window of the north transept was made by Kempe in 1877 and contains stained glass.