Church Of St Mary

A parish church at Sarnesfield, dating from the 12th to 15th centuries and substantially restored around 1870 and 1907. The building is constructed of sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings and stone slate roofs.

The church comprises a west tower, nave with south aisle and south porch, chancel with south chapel, and diagonal buttresses to the north-east corner of the chancel and south-east corner of the south chapel.

The west tower rises in three stages above a deep battered plinth and is topped with a pyramidal roof and large weathercock. The ground stage features a pair of lancets with a roundel between their apices. The first stage has a round-headed loop, and the top stage contains a square-headed opening within which sits a subsidiary oak trefoiled head. The north, south and east faces have similar upper openings to the west elevation, though the east face retains scars of the higher nave roof.

The north elevation of the nave displays a central group of three trefoiled and ogee-headed lights beneath a square head. The chancel's east window is restored, featuring two trefoil-headed lights with quatrefoil tracery. The south chapel has a similar east window to the chancel but with smaller lights. The south elevation shows two pairs of 19th-century lancets, each topped with a quatrefoil above and red voussoirs. The gable contains a loop and a red and grey sandstone band at eaves level. Below and to the right is a re-set stone carved with incised chevrons.

The south aisle has a sandstone plinth and a 19th-century roof of two bays with cusped and cambered ties forming trefoils with principals. The ties are supported by curved braces, with an intermediate collar truss resting on arch braces. Cusped bargeboards and a lower range of wind braces complete the external detailing. Restored side panels are formed as lancets above brick-filled lower panels. The south doorway has a two-centred head and is fitted with a ledged oak 19th-century door with strap hinges.

Interior

The chancel roof has been restored with collar and tie-beam trusses and lower wind braces. The south chapel roof features wind braces with raking struts behind the south gable. The nave roof comprises four trusses with curved struts from ties to principals; intermediate trusses have collars supported on arch braces and cusped wind braces forming trefoil-headed patterns.

The chancel contains a piscina in the east wall with a chamfered two-centred head. On the north wall is a grey and white marble monument to Bridget Monington, died 1775, featuring a black oval plaque with garland beneath a cornice and urn, with an apron decorated with a laurel wreath. The east window depicts St George and is a memorial to three men of the parish who fell in World War I. A six-branch brass candelabrum, possibly 18th-century, is also present. The chancel arch is of 15th-century date, almost round with double chamfers and moulded capitals.

The south chapel is divided from the chancel by an early 20th-century octagonal pier supporting two arches without responds. The chapel is further separated from the south aisle by a two-centred arch, probably of 15th-century date. Several floor slabs dating from the late 17th to late 18th centuries commemorate members of the Monington and Benington families. Two tapered slabs with cross-heads are probably of 13th or 14th-century date. The east window contains fragments of medieval glass, including figures and angels. An oak chest, probably 16th-century, features four linenfold panels to the front and two to the sides, with four plain panels to the lid. A First World War marker cross on the east wall commemorates 2nd Lieutenant A Marshall, killed in action in 1917.

The nave has a late 12th-century arcade to the south aisle, with double-chamfered two-centred arches on round piers with square bases and scalloped capitals. The tower arch is two-centred and of two orders, the outer chamfered and the inner moulded. Above the tower arch is a round-headed, deeply recessed arch. The font has a restored or 19th-century octagonal bowl chamfered on the underside, a square stem with a central attached shaft to each side, probably 14th-century, and a round base of 14th-century date. A small oak 17th-century table with bobbin balusters and stretcher has a 19th or 20th-century top. An 18th-century Monington hatchment inscribed "IN CAELO QUIES" is displayed, along with a late 19th-century oak harmonium by Estey Organ Co, Brattleboro, Vermont, USA, complete with fluted candlesticks.