Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This parish church in Westbury dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, though it has undergone substantial rebuilding and restoration. The tower collapsed in 1753 and was rebuilt by masons Richard and William Cureton, with the chancel also reconstructed in that year. The church was extensively restored between 1878 and 1887 (sources differ on the exact date) by the Shrewsbury architects Oswell and Smith, at a cost of £1,879. Most windows were replaced during this campaign, the chancel was remodelled, and a vestry was added.

The building is constructed of roughly squared and coursed red sandstone rubble with red sandstone dressings. The east wall of the chancel was rebuilt in dressed snecked red sandstone, while the west tower is of yellow and grey sandstone ashlar. The roofs are plain tile. The plan comprises a nave with north aisle, chancel with north vestry, north porch, and west tower.

The three-stage tower has a chamfered plinth, floor bands, and a moulded cornice. The parapet is coped and ramped up to the corners, topped with a low pyramidal slate cap and weathervane. The belfry openings are round-arched and louvred, with chamfered-rusticated surrounds and moulded cills; beneath these are keyed circular windows containing clocks to north and south. The second stage features a large Venetian window to the west with square mullions, impost blocks, triple keystones, a bracketed cill, and lead glazing bars. The west doorway has two 19th-century nail-studded boarded doors with strap hinges, a three-part rectangular overlight, and a projecting chamfered-rusticated surround with triple keystone and moulded dentil cornice. Above this is a raised section of walling containing a barely legible date stone. Sixteen stone steps lead to a second entrance in the second stage, which has a door with six flush panels and a chamfered-rusticated surround with triple keystone. A one-storey lean-to flanks the foot of the steps.

The south side of the nave has a chamfered plinth at the centre and coped parapeted gable ends with a cross to the east. Two large buttresses, probably of the 18th century, stand off-centre to the right, alongside a 19th-century buttress also to the right; all have chamfered offsets. Three 19th-century windows punctuate this wall: to the left is a three-light window with trefoils and quatrefoils in the tracery and a hood mould with carved stops; in the centre is a two-light window with Geometrical tracery, hollow-chamfered reveals, and hood mould with carved stops; to the right is a three-light window with cinquefoil-headed lights and intersecting tracery, with chamfered reveals and returned hood mould. The left-hand corner was rebuilt in ashlar following the partial destruction caused by the tower's collapse in the 18th century, evident from a straight joint between the second window from the left and the adjacent buttress.

The north aisle has a chamfered plinth and coped parapeted gable ends with crosses at the apexes. The north side features five 18th- and 19th-century buttresses with chamfered offsets, one to the north-east being diagonal. Three 19th-century carved corbels sit beneath the eaves above the left-hand window. The windows are all 19th-century work: the left-hand window has two cinquefoil-headed lights with a quatrefoil in the tracery, hollow-chamfered reveals, and a returned hood mould; a three-light window off-centre to the left displays trefoils and quatrefoils in the tracery, hollow-chamfered reveals, and a hood mould with carved stops. A 19th-century doorway off-centre to the right has a hollow-chamfered arch, chamfered reveals, a hood mould with carved stops, and a boarded door with strap hinges; evidence of a medieval doorway survives in the wall behind. The north porch is a gabled structure with timber-framed upper parts and a battered stone base, featuring a central arch flanked by trefoil-arched panels, brackets supporting the wall-plates, and two-bay sides. The east end of the aisle contains a large 19th-century five-light window with intersecting tracery, chamfered reveals, and a returned hood mould. The west end retains a late 14th-century square-headed window with two trefoiled ogee-lights, flanked by a buttress to the left.

The chancel has a chamfered plinth and a coped parapeted gable end with a cross at the apex. An integral lateral stack to the north has a circular shaft. On the south side is a pilaster buttress to the left and a pair of chamfered lancets. The north side contains a chamfered lancet to the left and a lean-to vestry with a two-light window in its left-hand return front and a boarded door with a chamfered lintel. The east end has low clasping buttresses with splays forming angle buttresses above a string course. The apex of the gable is decorated with three flutes above the string. The triple chamfered lancets have a cill string and a continuous hood mould with carved stops. A 20th-century stone tablet attached to the east end is inscribed: "This Coemetery / Being the Buying Ground of his Family / was inclosed by / JOHN SEVERNE ESQ / late Colonel of the VIIIth Reg . of Dragoons / in the Year 1755 / When the Chancel of which / this was a Part was rebuilt / and made less."

Interior

The tower contains an ogee-stopped chamfered beam. The 19th-century west doorway has moulded reveals, a hood mould with carved stops, and a pair of nail-studded boarded doors with strap hinges. The west wall of the nave is the remains of a medieval tower, and includes a restored lancet in the second stage.

The five-bay north aisle arcade has circular piers with moulded bases and capitals, with arches featuring one chamfer and one roll moulding. The nave roof is a restored 15th-century structure with ten bays, comprising chamfered principal rafters, chamfered arch-braced collars with V-struts above, three purlins each side, and cusped wind braces forming quatrefoil patterns. An ashlar frieze with billet decoration runs along the top. The lower part of the south wall of the nave is rendered with a moulded top, and a square aumbry is located to the south-east. A stone corbel on the north wall of the nave supports the roof.

The 19th-century chancel arch has a double chamfer and is hollow outside with moulded imposts. Corbels support the inner arch and hood mould. The chancel roof is single-framed with arch-braced collars and a brattished frieze. The chancel windows have chamfered trefoiled rear-arches, with a cill string running around the walls. The vestry door is boarded with a hood mould. The north aisle has a waggon roof. The south-east window of the nave and the west window of the north aisle retain unrestored rear-arches; above the latter is a blocked pointed-arched window.

Fittings are predominantly 19th-century and include altar rails with wrought-iron supports. Low stone sanctuary walls have moulded plinths and chamfered tops. A stone pulpit to the right of the sanctuary has five sides, with shafts having moulded bases and capitals forming a balustrade, and a moulded rail above. An eagle lectern is present. The octagonal stone font rests on two steps and has a tre oil-panelled stem and quatrefoil-panelled bowl. A probably 18th-century carved and painted Royal coat of arms hangs above the north door. Four hatchments are displayed in the north aisle.

Monuments include a tablet in the nave to Catherine Corbet (died 1789) with a Corbet shield, and an 18th-century copper tablet to Richard Burley (died 1727). The chancel contains a tablet to John Ashby (died 1779) with a moulded base, cornice, urn above and shield below, and a tablet to John Severne (died 1779) with an urn above and coat of arms below. The north aisle displays a large Grecian tablet to "Johannis Topp" of Whitton Hall (died 1837), with battered sides, anthemion-ornamented frieze, triangular pediment with antifixae, and acanthus brackets, along with a Latin inscription. A tablet to Richard Topp (died 1814), signed by C. Lewis of Cheltenham, has a moulded cornice with guttae.

The 18th-century chancel was shorter than its medieval predecessor. There is some uncertainty about the date of the 19th-century restoration; contemporary sources give either 1878 or 1887.