Church Of St Mary

WORMSLEY CP - SO 44 NW 4/76 Church of St Mary 2.9.66 GV II* Parish church, now redundant. C12 and C13 with later alterations, and chancel rebuilt probably in late C19. Sandstone rubble with sandstone dress- ings. Welsh slate roofs with tile cresting. Three-bay nave with western bell-cot and two-bay chancel. West elevation has battered plinth, high-set lancet in chamfered recess. C13 gabled bell-cot with two trefoiled openings has battered base which breaks through verge. North elevation of nave has a chamfered triangular-headed blocked doorway to the right-hand side. Above and further to the right is a lancet. Left side has chamfered trefoil-headed light. Chancel has two chamfered lancets. East window has three stepped lancets, no tracery, but under a two-centred arch with moulded label. South elevation of chancel has a chamfered lancet to the left and a pair of square- headed lights to the right. Nave has a lancet to the left of the south porch. Window to right his two lancets, within a C19 restored chamfered two-centred arch, and an oculus in the spandrel. South porch, probably early C20, has coupled rafter roof and a stone bench to east side. South doorway has a massive lintel above which is a tympanum with recessed lozenges. Interior has pine single-frame collar trusses, probably late C20, those of chancel supported from corbels below wall-plate level. Chancel has stained glass in east window with cross-motifs and foliated margins. North and south windows have ruby margins but are otherwise plain. On north wall is brass plaque for Lt Thomas Andrew Greville Rouse-Boughton-Knight, killed aged 19, near Les Boeufs, France, October 1916, and for Rifleman Edward Charlton, a gamekeeper on the Wormsley Estate, killed aged 36, at Sequehart, north of St Quentin, October 1918. Rouse-Boughton-Knight's marker cross is attached to the wall above. Two wrought iron tripods with coronas, each carry a paraffin lamp, probably late C19 or early C20. Chancel arch is C13, double-chamfered and two-centred resting on part octagonal responds and corbels which are probably late C19. Nave has blocked triangular-headed north doorway. Opposite the south door is another blocked opening with continuous convex mouldings and a segmental head. To left of north-east nave window is a bracket with ball-flower ornament. Font is probably C12 or C13 with tapered cyclindrical base and a round-tapered bowl. Oak pulpit is C17 with two sides of panelling. Lower two panels each have enriched arches and are separated from upper panels, which have arabesques, by guilloche ornament. Front of oak desk has four panels with moulded margins, probably late C17. The Church of St Mary is maintained by the Redundant Churches Fund. (BoE, p 326; RCHM, Vol III, p 214).

Listing NGR: SO4274947794