Church Of St Mary

BITTERLEY

SO57NE Church of St Mary 482-1/6/74 12/11/54

GV II*

Church. C12 and C13 with C17 alterations, restored 1876 and 1880. Stone rubble and coursed stone rubble with ashlar dressing. Plain-tile roof with ashlar-coped gable. PLAN: chancel, nave with south porch, west tower. EXTERIOR: chancel with C19 pointed arched east window of 4 lights. North wall with 2 lancets, one blocked, flanking paired cusped-lancet window with trefoil. South wall with restored pointed arched window of 3 cusped lancets and labelmould, priest's door with shouldered stone slab lintel and plain chamfered jambs, single buttress with offsets. Nave: south wall with 2 restored Decorated-style pointed arched windows, 3 cusped lancets with labelmould and head-stop to right, 2 cusped lancets with quatrefoil to left, buttresses with offsets and gablets. Restored north wall mirrors south wall, with additional octagonal stone chimney shaft set on one buttress. Late C19 timber-framed south porch set on stone plinth with arch-braced truss opening. C19 south door within restored C13 pointed arched opening with roll and fillet moulding. Tower: 3 stage tower. Lower 2 stages of coursed rubble walls with ashlar dressings on ashlar plinth with roll moulding and short clasping buttresses. Single lancet on each face at lower stage and C19 paired lancets at middle stage. Top stage is a late C19 timber-framed belfry with short broach spire. INTERIOR: chancel roof truss is restored crown-post with swept braces to principals with carved pierced quatrefoils and carved straight tie beam. c1924 rood screen in C15 style supporting rood loft. Loft with original mullions and traceried panels supporting beam enriched by additional deep perforated trailing ornament and cresting. Nave: C19 trussed rafter roof. C17 pulpit. C12 font with shallow round-arched arcade carving with foliage above. Restored tower arch of 2 orders with original filleted shafts. Abaci mainly restored but with vestiges of stiff-leaf capital decoration. 3 C15 bells. Monuments in chancel. Wall tablet with effigy of Timothye Lucye d.1616: kneeling figure set between 2 columns under corniced canopy with armorial tablet over. 10 Walcot family tablets, some armorial, of early C18 to C20 and 8 Pardoe tablets of same dates. 5 Walcot slab memorials from 1685 to 1812 and others including memorial to Anna Lydall d.1680. Monuments in nave: Pardoe tablet 1768, 3 tablets to Powys of Henley, 1668, 1671, and 1731 all armorial with embellishments. Under tower, armorial Powys tablet of 1645. (An Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire: Cranage D H S: 1895-).

Listing NGR: SO5708177311