Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Enville

Parish church with an early 12th-century core, incorporating 13th and 14th-century additions. The building was substantially restored and enlarged between 1872 and 1874 by the architect G.G. Scott. It is constructed of red sandstone ashlar with plain tile roofs finished with coped verges.

The plan comprises a south-west tower, a four-bay nave with a western annexe, north and south aisles, a north porch, a three-bay chancel, and a north vestry with organ chamber.

The south-west tower dates to Scott's 1872–1874 campaign. It has three stages with angle buttresses and is crowned by a castellated openwork parapet. The parapet features corner pinnacles with crocketed spirelets and hexagonal finials on each face and at the corners. The south door has colonettes, panelled spandrels, and a returned hood mould. Above it sits a two-light window with cinquefoil-headed lights separated by a niche containing a crocketed nodding ogee canopy. The second and third stages each have paired pointed and transomed windows of two trefoil-headed lights with early Perpendicular-style tracery.

The north aisle features buttresses at the bay divisions and pointed windows of two trefoil-headed lights with 19th-century Decorated tracery and returned hood moulds. A three-light west window is also present. The north porch, rebuilt in 1872–1874, has a pointed outer arch with roll and fillet moulded surround and a crocketed ogee hood mould terminating in heads. A niche above contains an image of the Virgin beneath a nodding ogee hood.

The south aisle is of 12th-century date. It has buttresses at the bay divisions and pointed windows each of two trefoil-headed lights with late 13th-century Decorated tracery of 1872–1874; the east window, dating to the 16th century, has three trefoil-headed lights and Perpendicular tracery.

The chancel is of early 14th-century date with buttresses at the bay divisions. Its windows are 19th-century insertions with reticulated tracery. A 19th-century door to the centre of the north side has a segmental pointed head.

Interior

The early 12th-century south arcade comprises cylindrical columns with square abaci and squat multi-scalloped capitals, supporting semi-circular single-step arches. The west arch is blocked by the tower. Two of the arcade spandrels contain 12th-century figure sculptures: one depicts a bishop with his left hand clutching a crozier and his right hand raised in blessing; the other shows a priest with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand holding a fan. The early 13th-century north arcade has cylindrical columns with round abaci and capitals with incised decoration; its semi-circular arches are of two chamfered orders, with details recut in 1872–1874. A pointed west annexe arch dates to Scott's restoration campaign.

The 14th-century pointed chancel arch has two chamfered orders springing from engaged semi-octagonal columns with moulded capitals. At the east end of the south aisle stands a water stoup, and at the level of the arches is a blocked door which probably communicated with a former rood loft. In the chancel, a pointed moulded arch leads to the organ chamber. On the north side of the sanctuary is a 19th-century wall cupboard with an ogee head and ballflower ornament. The south side has 19th-century sedilia and piscina with pointed arches and continuous hood mould; the piscina contains a double basin.

The roofing is varied: a 19th-century arch-braced collar roof spans the west annexe; an arch-braced collar roof covers the nave, probably dating to the 14th century; the south aisle has a 14th or 15th-century arch-braced collar roof with one pair of moulded and coupled purlins and cusped wind braces; the north aisle has a braced collar rafter roof probably of 14th-century date; the chancel has a 19th-century collar rafter roof where every third collar is arch-braced while the others have straight braces.

Fittings

A 19th-century octagonal stone font rests on a cylindrical marble-shafted pedestal. A 19th-century octagonal wooden pulpit stands on a stone base. Three brass chandeliers hang in the nave and one in the chancel. Late 15th-century stalls feature carved bench ends and four misericords depicting Sir Ywain at the castle gate, a couple in a pew, two dogs attacking a bear, and a seated angel under a canopy. A 19th-century wooden communion rail is supported on a shafted open arcade.

Monuments

The chancel contains a 13th-century recumbent effigy of a priest in a recess on the north side of the sanctuary. In the south aisle is an alabaster chest tomb of Sir Thomas Grey (died 1559) and his wife and children. Sir Thomas is depicted in plate armour with his head resting on a tilting helm and his feet on a lion, with children shown around the sides. Also in the south aisle are monuments to Harry Grey, Earl of Stamford (died 1768), with a tablet surmounted by an obelisk and urn; Dorothy Grey, daughter of the third Earl of Stamford, with a tablet and pedestalled urn; Henry Grey (died 1686), with an aedicular tablet featuring Corinthian columns and console brackets surmounted by a coat of arms; and William Wright (died 1765), with a tablet. The north aisle contains tablets to Wollaston (died 1796), Mary Caddick (died 1829), and Richard Wilkes (died 1824).

Stained glass is predominantly late 19th-century, though the east window of the south aisle incorporates some 14th-century glass.