Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Bishops Frome

This is a parish church of the late 12th century, substantially rebuilt in the 19th century, with a 14th- and 15th-century tower. The chancel was rebuilt in 1847, and the nave and aisle were rebuilt in 1861–2 by the architect F.R. Kempson.

The building is constructed of local sandstone. The tower is laid in regular courses, while the rest is random rubble with buff-coloured dressings and quoins. The roofs are tiled and the rainwater goods are cast iron. The plan comprises a nave with a shorter north aisle, a lower and narrower chancel, a west tower, and a south porch.

The most prominent feature is the three-stage tower, dating to the 14th and 15th centuries. It has diagonal buttresses and a polygonal north-east stair turret rising through the lower two stages. The west window is two-light Decorated, above which are small cinquefoil-headed windows in the second stage. The bell stage, which is later and narrower, has two-light Perpendicular bell openings. An embattled parapet conceals a later pyramid roof. The rest of the exterior is in an elaborate neo-Norman style, intermixed with Gothic elements and built around some genuine 12th-century work. The nave south doorway is late 12th century, featuring two orders of nook shafts with leaf capitals and an arch incorporating chevrons and roll moulding. The remainder of the nave, aisle, and south porch have round-headed windows with nook shafts, sill and impost bands, and corbel tables to rainwater goods. An exception is a 14th-century cusped nave south-east window, which lights a former altar and now appears out of place. The porch entrance has three orders of shafts and foliage capitals. The earlier chancel has plain round-headed windows on the south and north walls, and an east window of three lights set in a blind arcade of round arches, below a Gothic rose window. In the south wall, the sill band terminates either side of the priest's door with grotesques.

Internally, the 14th-century tower arch has two orders of continuous chamfer with the inner order on simple imposts. The 12th-century chancel arch has two orders of nook shafts with scalloped capitals and chevrons in the arch. The only other medieval feature is a simple pointed piscina in the south-east corner of the nave. The chancel roof of 1847 is of four bays with collar beams. The nave and aisle have trussed-rafter roofs. The north arcade is four bays, with pairs of round columns and French early-Gothic capitals to round arches. The walls are plastered and the windows have ornate rere arches. The floors are red and black tiles, with wood floors beneath the pews.

In the nave south wall is a 14th-century segmental-pointed recess enriched with ballflower, containing an effigy of a knight with shield. The font is a massive plain round bowl of the 12th century, mounted on a 19th-century stem and base. The chancel screen incorporates 16th-century work in its delicate tracery and foliage trail. A simple 16th-century screen in the north chapel, together with an altered 18th-century communion rail, was brought from Avenbury church, via nearby Munderfield chapel, in 1980. On the aisle east wall is a painted memorial to Margery de la Downes, who died in 1598. Several 18th- and 19th-century wall tablets and grave slabs are set along the chancel north and south walls. The east window shows scenes from the life of Christ and dates to around 1847. The west window, depicting Faith and Charity, dates to around 1936. Benefaction boards beneath the tower date to 1786. The simple pine pews and choir stalls date to 1861.

Of the original late 12th-century church, only the chancel arch and the south doorway have survived. A tower was added in the 14th century and heightened in the 15th century. The present plan may be medieval, but major rebuilding works in the 19th century make this impossible to determine with certainty. The chancel was rebuilt in 1847, possibly by R.C. Carpenter (1812–55). In 1861, the nave and aisle were rebuilt, including exterior re-facing, by F.R. Kempson (1837/8–1923). Kempson began his career in London but relocated his practice to Hereford in 1861, receiving many commissions in the county.