Church Of St Mary And All Saints

Church of St Mary and All Saints

A Grade I parish church at Willoughby on the Wolds, built over three centuries from the 13th to 15th centuries, with significant later alterations and restorations. The fabric is dressed coursed rubble with some ashlar, roofed in lead with coped gables and parapets to the nave and chancel. The church comprises a tower with spire, nave with north and south aisles, a north chantry chapel dedicated to St Nicholas, south porch, and chancel.

The 13th-century tower is constructed of dressed coursed rubble with ashlar quoins and rises in two stages. An early 14th-century broach spire with two tiers of four lucarnes sits upon a low chamfered plinth. The west side of the tower has a single arched window; the south side features a single rectangular light with a clock face above. Four arched bell-chamber openings, each containing two pointed arched lights, perforate the tower walls.

The north aisle's west wall contains a single arched 14th-century window with cusped tracery and hood mould. The north wall holds a single arched two-light early 14th-century window with Y tracery and a chamfered arched doorway. To the left stands the 13th-century angle-buttressed chapel on a plinth, its west wall decorated with a single blind quatrefoil. A sill band continues across the north side, where two restored 14th-century windows each display two arched, cusped lights under a flat arch. The east wall has a single restored 14th-century window with three cinquefoil arched lights under a flat arch; the central light has a single transom with a blind trefoil arch beneath. To its left, the aisle's east wall, set on a shallow plinth, features a single 15th-century arched three-light window with cusped panel tracery and hood mould. The 15th-century clerestory comprises four arched windows, each displaying three cinquefoil arched lights with hood mould and label stops.

The chancel's north wall, partially set on a shallow plinth, contains a single early 14th-century arched two-light window with Y tracery and remains of a continuous sill band. The east end displays a single 19th-century arched five-light window with cusped tracery, hood mould and label stops. The south chancel wall, with a band extending over a narrow plinth, bears two 19th-century arched three-light windows with cusped panel tracery, hood mould and label stops.

The south aisle, set on a plinth, has in its east wall a single arched three-light early 14th-century window with intersecting tracery. The south wall contains two arched two-light early 14th-century windows with Y tracery. To the left stands the gabled south porch of 1908, set on a plinth. The porch entrance features a double chamfered arch, with the inner chamfer supported on 19th-century octagonal responds, and displays hood mould and label stops; above is a single trefoil arched niche. Each side wall of the porch holds a single trefoil arched light. The inner doorway is double chamfered with hood mould and remains of label stops. To its left is a single similar two-light window. The porch's west wall contains a single arched three-light 15th-century window with cusped panel tracery, hood mould and human-head label stops.

The interior reveals a four-bay early 13th-century nave arcade with circular columns and keeled responds. Octagonal moulded capitals appear on all but the two easternmost columns of the south arcade, which are circular. The single central pier on the south side has a capital decorated with crude foliate carving; the east respond of this side retains some 19th-century nailhead decoration and remains of crude foliate carving. Double chamfered arches with hood moulds to the nave sides bear remains of two label stops. The tower arch is double chamfered, with the inner chamfer supported on keeled responds with moulded capitals. A 19th-century double chamfered chancel arch has the inner chamfer supported on octagonal responds. A 19th-century rood screen divides the spaces.

The two-bay north aisle and chapel arcade features moulded arches with a single central circular moulded column. The easternmost bays are partly occupied by a panel with two blind trefoil arches. The chapel's west wall displays three-bay 13th-century blind arcading with moulded arches and jambs but no capitals, with a single rectangular recess above. The north wall contains an aumbry and a single moulded rectangular niche with a further small recess. The south wall features an ogee arched piscina; decorative moulding flanks the jambs of the east window.

The nave shows evidence of a former roof on its west wall. The 15th-century nave roof displays moulded and carved beams with decorative bosses. The north aisle contains a single rectangular niche beneath the east window. Remains of wall painting survive on the south aisle's south wall and on the north and east walls of the nave.

The furnishings include a 16th-century oak chest with iron hinges and two chairs with 16th-century carving. An octagonal 14th-century ashlar font is decorated with blind trefoil arched panels on its bowl. Remaining furniture dates to the 19th century. A single William IV hatchment hangs in the church. The tower contains two boards with biblical texts and a board detailing bequests. Medieval floor tiles lie between the north aisle and north chapel. The north aisle floor displays a small oval brass to Colonel Michael Stanhope, 1648, decorated with a skull and crossbones, hourglass and angel's wings, alongside a further floor slab with an incised cross.

The north chapel of St Nicholas contains several notable monuments. Two effigies dating from around 1300 depict ladies in wimples; one rests her head upon a pillow, the other supported by angels. The effigy of Sir Richard de Willoughby, 1325, shows a recumbent cross-legged knight with his wife beside him; both rest their feet on lions and heads on pillows. Sir Richard de Willoughby the Judge, 1362, is depicted as a recumbent figure in pleated dress on an alabaster tomb with blind shields decorating the sides. The alabaster tomb of his son Sir Richard de Willoughby, 1369, shows a recumbent knight with his head resting on a visor and feet on a dog, the front decorated with raised shields. The alabaster tomb of Sir Hugh de Willoughby and his second wife Margaret Freville, 1448, depicts two recumbent prayer figures; he is a knight with feet on a lion and head on a visor, she with feet on a dog and head on a pillow supported by angels. The tomb head is decorated with a representation of the Holy Trinity, the foot end with the Virgin and Child. Angels holding shields in trefoil arched panels with decorative carved spandrels adorn the sides. Sir Hugh's fragmentary sword is displayed in a case on the north wall. An incised floor slab commemorates Isabel Foljanbe, 1417, first wife of Sir Hugh, and a much restored floor slab honours a priest, probably Hugh Willoughby, Rector of Willoughby from 1320 to 1329.

The church underwent repairs in 1781, was repaired and enlarged in 1829, had its chancel rebuilt in 1891, and was restored with a new porch built in 1908. The north chantry chapel was restored in 1984.