Church Of St Mary

This parish church has a complex building history spanning from the early 13th century through to a heavy restoration in 1859-61 by Ewan Christian, with an intermediate rebuilding phase in 1820-21. The church is built of green sandstone rubble blocks with some ironstone and red sandstone rubble blocks, areas of brick, and limestone ashlar dressings. The roofs are covered in lead and topped with battlements and cross finials.

Plan and Structure

The church consists of a west tower with spirelet, a nave with north and south aisles, and a chancel with north and south aisles and a north vestry.

West Tower

The west tower dates from around 1200 but was substantially remodelled in 1861. It features an ashlar-dressed plinth and two-stage buttresses applied to pilasters. The west face has two lancet windows with two moulded string courses above them, topped by a small light with a Caernarvon head. The south side incorporates a polygonal stair turret added in 1861, accessed through a doorway in the south wall with a Caernarvon head and plank door. Single slit lights appear on the south and west faces, with three quatrefoils above. All four sides have bell openings, each a pointed opening containing two trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil. Moulded eaves carry two gargoyles on each side plus corner gargoyles. Battlements crown the tower, surmounted by a lead-covered spirelet with a weathervane.

North Aisle

The north aisle was rebuilt in 1820-21, with its windows and porch added during the 1859-61 restoration. The west end features a pointed window with three cusped, pointed lights and three mouchettes, with a hood mould and head label stops. Moulded eaves and a parapet with rectangular rosette motifs run above. The north side has a gabled porch to the right, with a pointed doorway featuring a moulded head, filleted semi-circular jambs, hood mould and head label stops. The 19th-century inner doorway has a pointed head with two continuous moulded orders and a plank door. To the left of the porch are three windows alternating with two-stage buttresses. These windows have flattened triangular heads, three cusped ogee-headed lights, and two mouchettes.

The 15th-century north aisle chapel, now the organ chamber, has three regularly placed buttresses rising to the base of three pinnacles on the roof line. A doorway to the right has a four-centred head, hood mould, plank door, and an illegible plaque above. Two large windows to the east have flattened triangular heads, chamfered surrounds, and four round-headed cusped lights with panel tracery. A frieze above contains cusped rectangular plaques with shields.

North Vestry

The north vestry of 1861 has a pointed doorway to the west, moulded in one with a plank door. To the left is a pointed window with three pointed, cusped lights and a hood mould.

Clerestory

Five 15th-century clerestory windows over the nave were restored in 1861, each with a four-centred head, three flattened pointed cusped heads, and a hood mould. Four clerestory windows over the chancel, restored in the 19th century, each have a bowtell moulded surround, three pointed cusped lights, and a hood mould. Moulded eaves and battlements run above.

East End

The east end of the 19th-century vestry has a pointed window with two pointed, cusped lights and panel tracery. The east end proper is defined by two-stage gabled buttresses and features a large, pointed five-light window of 1861 with flowing tracery based on the east window of Haltham on Bain, with hood mould and head label stops.

South Aisle

The south aisle was rebuilt in 1820-21 with windows added in 1859-61. The east end has a pointed four-light window with panel tracery and a hood mould. Moulded eaves and a parapet run above. The south side of the chancel aisle has three flattened pointed windows alternating with three-stage buttresses, each window having four lights with panel tracery and hood moulds. Moulded eaves and parapet continue above. The south side of the nave has three shallow pointed windows, each with three cusped ogee-headed lights with various mouchettes above.

The porch of 1861 has a flattened gable and two-stage diagonal buttresses. Its pointed doorway has a chamfered head, polygonal responds, hood mould, and head label stops. Flanking stone benches sit either side, and the pointed inner doorway has a continuous chamfered surround, plank doors, hood mould, and head label stops. The west end of the south aisle has a pointed window with three pointed, cusped lights, flowing tracery, hood mould, and head label stops.

Interior

Tower Arch and Western Features

The tower arch dates from around 1200 and has a triple-chamfered, pointed head dying into roll-moulded jambs, with a central jamb on each side with fillet. A small doorway in the south-west corner of the tower has a semi-circular relieving arch, rectangular moulded lintel, and a small segmental-headed plank door beneath. A cusped oculus is set high above the outer arch.

Nave Arcades

The five-bay north and south arcades date from the early 13th century, though the upper sections of the piers, capitals, abaci, and spandrels were rebuilt in 1859-61. Single eastern bays on each side are smaller and of late 13th-century date, also heavily restored around 1861. The arcades have semi-circular, filleted west responds. Each pier has four larger filleted rolls alternating with four slender rolls. Two stiff-leaf capitals appear on the two western piers on each side, while single piers to the east have later 13th-century moulded capitals and eastern responds dying into the wall. The pointed, double-chamfered heads are much narrower in the eastern bays, with 19th-century hood moulds and head label stops. A large 15th-century gargoyle appears in the westernmost spandrel of the north arcade.

Chancel Arch and Aisles

The chancel arch dates from 1859-61 and has a pointed, double-chamfered head, with the inner order decorated with flower-head motifs. It is corbelled on two half-shafts on each side with stiff-leaf capitals, hood mould, and ornate label stops.

A pointed archway leads from the north aisle of the nave into the north aisle of the chancel (now the organ chamber), with a double-chamfered head dying into broad chamfered jambs. An ornate late 14th-century corbel immediately to the right features veined leaves and lion faces.

The triangular-headed 19th-century south aisle archway leading into the south aisle of the chancel has a double-chamfered head and jambs and a simply moulded corbel to the left.

Chancel Arcades and Features

The 15th-century two-bay north and three-bay south chancel arcades were heavily restored in the 19th century, with polygonal responds, octagonal piers, pointed double-chamfered heads, and 14th-century screens heavily restored in the 19th century.

A blocked doorway in the north wall of the chancel, heavily restored in the 19th century, has a four-centred head. A small pointed opening with a grille lies immediately to the right.

An ornate stone reredos dates from 1861. A 14th-century piscina in the south wall of the chancel, heavily restored in the 19th century, has a richly moulded ogee head with crockets, finial, hood mould with flanking pinnacles, and head label stops.

Roofs and Fittings

The roofs of 1861 are supported on stone angle corbels in the chancel and wooden angel corbels in the nave. 19th-century fittings include the altar rail, brass candelabra, octagonal stone font, pulpit, and eagle lectern. A chest is inscribed "1690 FASHIH".

Monuments and Memorials

In the chancel, monuments include one of white marble on a black field to the Reverend Clement Madely, who died in 1843; a semi-circular headed slate monument on white marble brackets to Elizabeth Fletwell (undated); and a large white marble monument with a small sepulchre, marble pedestals with urns, and large quantities of black marble diapery to George Heald, who died in 1834.

Four floor slabs in the chancel commemorate Thomas Lodington, died 1723; John Shelley, died 1707; Jane Dymoke, died 1745; and Emma Heald, 1828.

The south chapel contains a monument to the Reverend Thomas Gibson, a royalist who suffered during the Commonwealth and eventually died in 1678. Other monuments here include a white marble monument on a black field with book, cross, and laurels to Francis Rockcliffe, died 1817; an oval white marble plaque to Ann Sandon, 1825; a white marble monument on a black field to Richard Rockcliffe, died 1800; and a white marble monument to Thomas Friskney, died 1776.

In the nave, a small stone plaque is inscribed "Thos Gibson Vicar John Hamerton, John Goake Church Warden NS ANNO DOMINI 1673". A white marble monument in a black field with fluted pilasters and urn commemorates Elizabeth Kelham, 1780.

A brass to Lionel Dymoke, who died in 1519, shows a kneeling soldier with two sons and three daughters each on small plaques and three coats of arms. Another, very worn brass to Lionel Dymoke is set in the floor of the north aisle.

Three stone slabs in the nave commemorate William Hamerton, died 1715; Sarah Sellwood, died 1816; and Richard Everitt, died 1783.

Three hatchments commemorate Dr Thomas Lodington, died 1724, and Jane Dymoke, died 1743. A recently repainted hatchment commemorates Sir Ingram Hopton, who was killed at the Battle of Winceby in 1643.