Church Of St Mary And St Andrew

Church of St Mary and St Andrew

This is a parish church of major significance, with origins in the 11th century and successive campaigns of rebuilding and enhancement through to the 19th century. The building is constructed in ashlar and coursed limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and dressings, beneath lead roofs.

The church comprises a western tower of three stages, a clerestoried nave with aisles, north and south chapels, north and south porches, and a chancel.

The western tower is the most prominent external feature. Its lower sections probably date from the 11th century and were originally unbuttressed. The belfry stage was added in the early 13th century and contains paired pointed lights with octagonal shafts and round outer arches. Slit windows with round heads pierce the side walls. A three-light window of early 15th-century date occupies the west wall, with cusps and panel tracery, and a further slit window sits above. On the north side is a slender stepped buttress of 14th-century date, dressed in ashlar. The belfry features a billeted string course and a corbelled embattled parapet with angle pinnacles and gargoyles.

The north aisle west wall contains a 15th-century window of three cusped lights with panel tracery. The 13th-century north porch is gabled, with a single chamfered outer arch and moulded octagonal imposts. The inner doorway dates to the 14th century and displays wave moulding with a hollow chamfered hood. The north aisle itself is constructed in ashlar and contains two 19th-century windows of three lights. The clerestory has three paired lights with cusped heads and moulded hoods.

The north chapel is a particularly fine structure built between 1460 and 1470 for the Rochford family. It features a moulded plinth, stepped buttresses, pinnacles, and an embattled parapet. The principal entrance is a moulded four-centred arched doorway with hood. Three exceptionally wide segmental-headed windows of three lights each occupy the principal wall, with moulded mullions and cusped heads to the lights. The east wall contains a centrally placed three-light window that was rebuilt in 1936, flanked by broad traceried windows belonging to the Rochford chantries.

The south chapel dates to 1448 and similarly displays a moulded plinth, stepped buttresses, and pinnacled embattled parapet. Its south wall contains two three-light windows with panel tracery and moulded surrounds. In the south aisle wall is a pair of 19th-century traceried three-light windows. The south aisle also contains an early 15th-century window with panel tracery in its west wall. A 19th-century gabled south vestry adjoins, with a single light and an ogee-headed doorway to the west.

Interior

The north arcade of the nave comprises three bays of mid-12th-century date, with round piers, cushion capitals, and square chamfered round arches. The early 13th-century south arcade displays stiff-leaf capitals and single chamfered round arches. The tower arch is also 13th-century, comprising two chamfered orders with octagonal responds. A broad single-chamfered chancel arch, with inserted capitals bearing the cypher of George VI, spans between the nave and chancel.

Within the chancel, the three-bay north arcade features 14th-century filleted quatrefoil shafts with filleted abaci, now supporting 15th-century four-centred continuously moulded arches. The south arcade is 15th-century with octagonal responds and chamfered arches. In the easternmost bay is a heavy crocketed ogee arch, extensively rebuilt in the 19th century. Piscinae survive in both chapels: an ogee-headed example in the south chapel and a pointed piscina with wave moulding in the north.

The chancel contains a reredos of 1911 designed by Mrs G F Watts, comprising a central panel depicting the Crucifixion flanked by free-standing images of saints, all executed in painted stone. A white marble reredos of 1886 commemorates Christopher Turnor and occupies the north chapel. Eighteenth-century box pews remain in the aisles. Nineteenth-century fittings include an octagonal font. A painted font cover made by Christopher Turnor around 1900 matches staircase panels in Stoke Rochford Hall. Three 18th-century funeral hatchments are preserved, and a large chest occupies the chancel.

Monuments and Burials

The north chapel contains a 14th-century double monument set into the floor within a rectangular surround, showing a knight and his lady lying under a blanket, the man bearing a shield of arms and their feet resting on dogs. A tomb recess with panelled chest decorated with angels is set above, beneath a moulded arch with fleurons, crockets, and finial. Two 15th-century tomb chests flank the altar, featuring cusped panelled sides with blank shields.

Chancel brasses commemorate Henry Rochford (died 1470), shown as a small figure in plate armour with shields above, and Oliver St John and his wife (died 1503), depicted as small praying figures with weepers and shields.

A handsome free-standing monument to Henry Cholmeley (died 1641) occupies the south chapel. It depicts the couple kneeling with a child between them, beneath a semi-circular arch with cornice and cartouche of arms flanked by strapwork scrolls. Sons kneel to either side beneath canopies supported on Ionic columns, with further obelisks completing the composition. Corinthian columns flank the centre section, and extensive traces of original paint remain visible.

A tall reredos monument to Sir Edmund Turnor (1707) dominates the north chapel, constructed in black and white marble with a panelled base, bolection-moulded inscription panel, and an Ionic aedicule with broken segmental parapet and urn.

Two additional marble wall monuments occupy the south wall of the chapel, one dating to 1678 and another to 1742. An extensive collection of 19th-century wall monuments commemorates members of the Turnor and Cholmeley families.