Church Of St Mary Magdelene

Church of St Mary Magdalene

Parish church located on the south side of Waltham High Street. The building dates from the 13th and 14th centuries with Norman origins. The clerestory was added and the tower completed in its present form during the 15th century. The 17th and 18th centuries saw repairs and alterations, followed by more extensive changes from 1839 onwards. The nave was extended by one bay and further renovations were carried out in 1850 by G G Scott.

The church is constructed of coursed squared limestone with limestone dressings and lead roofs. It comprises a chancel, vestry, central tower, transepts, an aisled nave, and a south porch.

The chancel features a 3-bay layout with a 3-light east window displaying Decorated-style tracery with hood mould and label stops. A 3-light window to the north has a 4-centred head and Perpendicular tracery. Three 3-light windows to the south contain Perpendicular tracery; the middle window is lower with a 4-centred head, while those on either side have brattished transoms. All have hood moulds. A small blocked rectangular window near the south-east angle has a chamfered surround. A blocked priests' door is located to the south. The chancel displays a chamfered plinth, moulded string courses including one at the level of the springing of the principal chancel windows, and diagonal off-set buttresses. A datestone inscribed "RB/1734" appears on the east gable, and another, probably of Coade stone with the Gillett coat of arms and dated 1841, is also present.

The vestry has a 3-light east window with a straight head and hood mould, with a stone stack to the north-east angle featuring an octagonal stone flue. A 2-light window to the north has Perpendicular tracery and hood mould. The door to the north has a round-arched head with a slight chamfer, imposts, a diamond at the key block, and a hood mould. The door itself is ridged and studded with ornamental hinges and ironwork dated 1839.

The north transept features a 4-light north window with Decorated tracery, hood mould, and label stops. A large ironstone off-set buttress is located at the north-west angle. The south transept has a 4-light south window with reticulated tracery and a 3-light east window with a 4-centred head and Perpendicular tracery, both with hood moulds. A large off-set buttress and octagonal stone flue are positioned at the south-west corner.

The 3-stage tower has cast-iron clock faces to the middle stage dated 1839. The bell-chamber openings are 2-light with Perpendicular tracery, transoms, and hood moulds. A frieze of quatrefoils and lozenges runs along the base of the plain stone-coped parapet, with gargoyles and panelled and crocketed pinnacles at the angles. A tall recessed, crocketed spire rises above, featuring two tiers of lucarnes in alternating directions.

The nave has a clerestory of 5 windows with Perpendicular tracery, basket-arched heads, and hood moulds. A 4-light west window in the nave displays cusped intersecting tracery, with a doorway below featuring 3 orders of filleted shafts and many moulded arches.

The north aisle contains a 3-light window to the north-east with Perpendicular tracery, a triangular head, and hood mould, and a middle window of paired lancets with hood mould. A blocked north door has a round-arched head and imposts (renewed).

The south aisle has a triple lancet window to the south-west and a 3-light window to the middle south side with stepped pointed heads to the lights, both with hood moulds. The 19th-century west bays of the aisles have 2-light windows with quatrefoils to the heads. The south doorway, renewed, has a round-arched head with roll moulding and one order of shafts with fluted capitals.

The 19th-century south porch has shafts and a double wave-moulded head, with 1-light windows to the east and west. The west end of the nave is flanked by off-set buttresses. Diagonal off-set buttresses flank the west end of the aisles, which have plain stone-coped parapets. Foliated stone crosses appear on the east and west gables.

Interior

The chancel contains a piscina and credence shelf with trefoiled niches above, and 3-seat sedilia with crocketed ogee-arched heads and fleurons. A doorway to the vestry has a similar head and decoration. The south transept chapel features a large trefoil-headed piscina.

The nave has 5-bay arcades, of which the 3 easternmost bays are original. The arcades feature octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals, and double-chamfered arches with polygonal responds.

The roof is Perpendicular in style, extended in the 19th century, with arch-braced tie beams, angels bearing shields to the intermediate rafters, and carved stone corbel heads bearing wall posts.

The font dates to the 13th century and features an octagonal bowl decorated with shallow attached shafts and interlacing beaded round arches and leaf forms in the arches, with one arch displaying a Latin cross in a mandorla. The octagonal shaft displays similar decoration.

The reredos is of tile and mosaic with a central panel showing the Last Supper, created in 1877 by Powell.

Two brass chandeliers are present: the smaller has two closely-spaced tiers of 5 branches and is dated 1741, a gift of William Love. The larger has 2 tiers of 7 branches with a dove and gilded wrought-iron support, presented in 1834; it is an early 18th-century piece from Grantham Church.

Stained glass windows are present in the chancel and aisles.

Monuments include a large grey Tournai marble incised slab in the vestry depicting a worn effigy of a priest vested for mass, and a white marble diamond-shaped wall monument to Jane Greenfield, died 1803.