Church Of St Mary And The Holy Rood

Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood

This is a parish church of medieval origin, built over the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with substantial restoration work undertaken in 1868 and 1896. The church is constructed of limestone ashlar with lead roofs and features a distinctive southwestern tower and spire. The building comprises a clerestoried nave with aisles and a chancel, all with battlemented parapets topped with moulded copings and set on bell moulded plinths. A 19th-century vestry and boiler house have been added to the west side, with the boiler house dated 1868.

The western entrance is marked by a moulded pointed surround with a crocketed ogee canopy decorated with fleurons. Above this stands a five-light 15th-century window with brattishing. The aisles contain single four-light windows of late 14th-century date with panel tracery, the northern example having moulded mullions. The north aisle features stepped gabled buttresses and a moulded parapet. Its door, continuously moulded in 14th-century style, is accompanied by four three-light windows with panel tracery and chamfered surrounds, along with one blocked 19th-century doorway. At the east end of the north aisle sits a three-light 15th-century window with ogee heads to the lights and a triangular head.

The clerestory contains seven paired 15th-century lights with cusped ogee heads and quatrefoils on both north and south sides. The chancel's east end displays a five-light 19th-century window in Perpendicular style, beneath which are two blocked four-centred arched doorways. The south side of the chancel features three 19th-century two-light windows with Geometric tracery and a 13th-century pointed doorway with hob nail imposts and roll moulded head. The east wall of the south aisle contains a single four-light 14th-century window with elaborate cusped tracery, while the south side displays three three-light 14th-century windows with cusped ogee tracery, moulded mullions, triangular heads, and hood moulds carved with human heads.

The tall three-stage southwestern tower rises with stepped corner gabled buttresses featuring crocketed gabled ogee niches and a battlemented parapet. A set-back spire crowns the structure with three tiers of alternating lucarnes. The belfry stage contains tall two-light openings with trefoil heads and quatrefoils, whilst the east and west sides have single two-light windows with quatrefoil and trefoil-headed lancets. On the south side, a deeply moulded outer doorway with three orders and annular capitals leads to an ogee-headed niche containing a crocketed gable above. The tower porch interior features a ribbed vault with a bell hole, and the inner door comprises four orders with slender shafts to the reveals, above which sits a crocketed ogee niche containing a seated figure.

The interior displays a seven-bay 15th-century nave arcade with octagonal piers, bell moulded bases, and octagonal brattished capitals supporting double chamfered arches. Elaborate figured corbels mark the responds. The nave roof retains one original braced truss with figured stone corbels. The east end of the north aisle contains a 15th-century four-light traceried window now opening to the added vestry, accessed via a narrow pointed doorway. In the southeast corner of the aisle stands an ogee-headed piscina, with a similar piscina in the south wall of the south aisle. A blocked pointed doorway marks the tower angle.

A tall 15th-century double chamfered chancel arch with an octagonal respond on the southern side divides the nave from the chancel. The northern side features an impost only and a door to the now vanished rood loft. The chancel contains a square piscina with fluted basin in its south wall. At the east end, an elaborate 19th-century mosaic and marble reredos is flanked by single 15th-century doorways with four-centred arched heads. On the north side, a short flight of steps is contained in an arched recess; both doorways and steps possibly lead to vestries or relic rooms. The chancel floor is tiled.

Notable fittings include an early 13th-century stone chair in the chancel with dogtoothing and a rolled terminal, featuring an engaged octagonal column to the front, alongside a churchwardens' chest. A tall late 14th-century octagonal font displays traceried and crocketed panels. An 18th-century graveyard shelter or hud stands in the churchyard.

The monuments include an ashlar 19th-century wall tablet in Gothic taste to Reverend John Wilson, died 1850, featuring a cusped ogee inscription panel with pinnacles and statues of saints at the sides, signed by Kent. A white marble wall tablet commemorates Captain Matthew Flinders, Royal Navy navigator who first circumnavigated Australia, born in Donington in 1774 and died in 1814, with a draped urn, fluted pilasters, and relief carving depicting a ship under full sail with Flinders at his telescope on deck. In the south aisle, a wall plaque to Antony Birks, author, died 1769, features an open pedimented form with egg and dart frieze. At the west end, a classical scrolled plaque with flowers, fruit, and memento mori commemorates Mary Long, died 1716.