Church Of St Mary

STAFFORD

SJ92SW CASTLE BANK, Castle Church 590-1/2/118 (North side) 16/01/51 Church of St Mary (Formerly Listed as: NEWPORT ROAD (North side) Church of St Mary, Castle Church)

GV II*

Church. C15 tower; nave and chancel 1844-5, by Scott and Moffatt; north aisle 1898 using 1844 windows, by JO Scott. Norman style, with Early English-style chancel and Perpendicular tower. MATERIALS: ashlar with tile roofs. EXTERIOR: 2-bay chancel and gabled north vestry, 4-bay nave and north aisle, west tower and gabled south porch. Coped gables with crosses. Chancel has east triplet of lancets with head stops to hood, south single-chamfered lancets flanking pointed entrance with offset buttress to left; vestry has 2-light east window with Decorated tracery and entrance, north side has 2 lights and basement entrance. Nave has shallow buttresses and clasping buttresses, and Lombard frieze to cornice, round-headed windows have nook shafts, zig-zag moulding to arches, and hoods. Porch has clasping buttresses and coped gable with cross, entrance of single order with rich moulding, door with strap hinges; boot scraper; aisle has similar details, pair of lancets to west and C19 rainwater head. Tower has 2 diagonal buttresses, plinth, south 2-light straight-headed window with sundial to right: incised inverted semi-circle with gnomon and inscription: J 1624 L; 2-light west window has hood stops with arms of Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham and Ann Neville (married 1423); 2-light triangular-headed bell openings on sill course are louvred, hoods with stops; top cornice with gargoyles and embattled parapet. INTERIOR: chancel has ashlared roof trusses; south sedilia in window recess with cusped splay arches and arm rest; north pointed vestry entrance, encaustic tiles, and wall tiles; chancel arch has foliate capitals and zig-zag; nave has deep-arch-braced roof, 4-bay arcades with moulded arches on round piers with plinths; tall C15 tower arch with brattished capitals; corbelled arch between aisle and vestry. FITTINGS: chancel has plain stalls and arcaded altar rail; ashlar south pulpit has 2 quatrefoils, dog-tooth moulding and angel corbel to book rest, timber lectern with swivel head; square font has pier and 4 small shafts, and early Christian style carving; 1929 timber screen to vestry arch has tracery and brattishing; ?C11 or C12 slab built into aisle west wall has foliate carving in triangular panels, possibly from altar or cross. MEMORIALS: some early C19 wall memorials from previous church, alabaster war memorial tablet in north aisle, 1628 and 1702 poor grant tablets. STAINED GLASS: C19 glass to windows, good east window with groups of figures in vesicas. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Nairn J: Staffordshire: London: 1974-: 249; Horne JS: The Story of Castle Church, Stafford: Stafford: 1961-).

Listing NGR: SJ9058922156