Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church dating from the 12th to 16th centuries, substantially restored in 1869. Built in ashlar, coursed rubble, red brick and render with lead and slate roofs. The building comprises a tower, nave, aisles, south porch and chancel.

The 15th-century angle-buttressed tower is constructed mainly of brick on a moulded ashlar plinth. It features an embattled brick parapet with a single gargoyle to each side (two to the east), and is topped with an ashlar octagonal spire. The spire has two stages of two-light traceried lucarnes and a single stage of single-light lucarnes. The tower rises in three stages with bands and a stair turret to the south east. The west side displays a moulded arched 15th-century doorway with hood mould and worn label stops, flanked by single arched and cusped ashlar niches containing 20th-century carved figures, with single ashlar shields in cusped rectangles below. A similar niche and figure appear over the doorway. The south side contains a small arched and cusped light, with a 14th-century arched two-light window above to the west, featuring cusped tracery and worn human head label stops. The south and north sides have rectangular lead glazing bar fixed lights with brick relieving arches. Four arched bell chamber openings display arched and cusped lights with cusped tracery, hood moulds and worn human head label stops; a clock face sits beneath the west opening. The stair turret has a four-centred arched doorway to the south side and four narrow rectangular lights to the west.

The north aisle has a continuous sill band broken by doorway and buttresses, with damage to the west wall. The north wall displays a 14th-century window with three arched and cusped lights under a flat arch, a 14th-century moulded arched doorway, a restored 14th-century segmental arched window with three arched and cusped lights (the central light with brattished transom), and a blocked 16th-century brick and ashlar window with three arched lights. Between the east buttress and north aisle north wall is an ogee arched and cusped niche under a flat arch. The east wall contains a heavily restored early 14th-century arched two-light window with cusped Y tracery. The 15th-century rendered brick clerestory has five segmental pointed arched windows, each with two arched and cusped lights, tracery, hood mould and label stops.

The chancel sits on a low chamfered plinth with continuous sill band. The north side features two worn gargoyles and an early 14th-century arched window with cusped Y tracery, plus a three-light early 14th-century arched window with cusped intersecting tracery and human head and animal label stops. The east chancel has a large 19th-century arched five-light window with cusped tracery. The south chancel, with two gargoyles, displays a three-light early 14th-century arched window with cusped intersecting tracery and human head label stops, a blocked arched window, a moulded arched doorway (the sill band forming a hood mould), an early 14th-century arched window with cusped Y tracery, and a moulded rectangular blocked window opening. Coped gables with single ridge crosses crown the east nave and chancel, with parapets to the north aisle and chancel.

The south aisle has a continuous sill band broken by buttresses and porch. The south wall contains two heavily restored three-light 14th-century windows with arched and cusped lights and cusped tracery. The south porch is gabled with a sundial mounted on the ridge. It features a double chamfered arched entrance with inner order supported on a single pair of octagonal responds, and an inner moulded arched doorway with hood mould and label stops. The porch clerestory corresponds to the north.

Interior

The interior contains five-bay 13th-century nave arcades with circular columns and responds, moulded capitals (some with unfinished decoration), spurs to bases and double chamfered arches with hood moulds. The tower arch is chamfered and moulded, supported on circular responds with fillets and brattishing to capitals, with an outer uncut brick arch. A 14th-century double chamfered chancel arch is supported on octagonal responds with moulded capitals. The north wall of the chancel incorporates 12th-century zigzag masonry. A 19th-century traceried screen is present.

The south wall of the chancel contains an early 14th-century double piscina with two arched and cusped niches with decorative blind tracery to the spandrel and continuous hood mould with human head label stop. To the right is an early 14th-century tripartite sedilia with inner arched and cusped order and outer moulded arches, complete with moulded jambs, bases and continuous hood mould with human head label stops. A four-centred arched blocked former rood loft doorway appears to the right of the north east respond in the nave, with a single opening under a flat head above it.

The south aisle contains a 14th-century ogee arched and cusped piscina. The east wall has a corbel that is the remains of a 12th-century volute capital. The west wall of the south aisle features a basket arched doorway with an 18th-century plank door.

The 15th-century font has an octagonal bowl decorated with panels of angels holding shields. A 17th-century oak chest is present, along with some old floor tiling. The 15th-century nave roof features moulded and chamfered beams with curved braces; some moulded beams appear in the aisle roofs.

Memorials

The church contains several notable memorials. An incised late 14th-century slab commemorates William de Tide, showing a knight with sword, dagger and lion at feet. Fragments of a 15th-century tomb chest with cusped rectangles containing shields are incorporated within the north wall.

Sir Clement Trafford's memorial (1786) displays an inscription tablet flanked by fluted pilasters, with fluted entablature and cornice surmounted by a coloured cartouche and shield on the apron. Iohannis Trafford's memorial (1719), by Walton of Wisbech, features a draped tablet flanked by cherubs, an acanthus-decorated apron and broken pediment containing an urn. Sigismond Trafford's memorial (1740) is particularly fine, with the tablet flanked by turned-down torches and foliate drops supporting decorative brackets, decorated cornice with draped portrait medallion, and apron with worn coloured shield. Thomas Sharpe's memorial (1781), by Andrews of Wisbech, displays a decorated apron and fluted entablature with patera and cornice surmounted by an urn.