Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a former collegiate church on St Mary's Gate in Stafford. It represents a substantial medieval building with architectural features spanning from the early 13th century through the fifteenth century, substantially restored and partially rebuilt in the nineteenth century.

The church is constructed of coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings and tile roofs with fishscale bands and cresting to the chancel south aisle and south transept.

The chancel has aisles under gabled roofs with a deep plinth and sill courses. Its windows are shafted with hoods and stops. The nineteenth-century east window has five lights with Geometrical tracery. The chancel north aisle extends for four bays with a cornice and coped parapet with gargoyles; its windows have Perpendicular tracery between offset buttresses, with a nineteenth-century four-light Early English east window. The chancel south aisle, rebuilt by Sir Gilbert Scott between 1841 and 1844, has four bays with large gabled buttresses rising above the cornice and coped parapet. It contains two nineteenth-century three-light Early English windows and two three-light windows with Geometrical tracery. An end turret with small broach spire rises from this aisle, and a nineteenth-century three-light segmental-pointed east window is positioned at its eastern end.

The crossing tower displays quatrefoils in square recesses and drip moulds with large beast stops. Angle gargoyles and crocketed pinnacles, mostly nineteenth-century work, ornament the tower. The octagonal top stage has paired two-light louvred bell-openings beneath a tracery frieze, cornice with gargoyles, and panelled parapet with crocketed pinnacles.

The north transept, dating to the early fourteenth century, has a deep plinth and shallow gabled roof with large diagonal buttresses capped by short pinnacles. Its entrance consists of four orders with ballflower and Tudor flower ornament. The north window has seven lights and the west window has four lights, both with Decorated tracery. A three-light east window displays Perpendicular tracery. The three-bay clerestory contains three-light windows between Perpendicular panelling. A cornice with gargoyles and embattled parapet runs along the top.

The south transept, also rebuilt by Scott, has a deep plinth and coped gable with a cross. Large offset angle buttresses ornament its corners. A stepped triplet of lancets with narrow buttresses between lights and a roundel to the gable are its principal south-facing feature. A thirteenth-century west lancet sits above a low entrance.

The nave extends for five bays with a clerestory containing three-light windows between Perpendicular panelling, similar in detail to the north transept. Shallow buttresses dating from the thirteenth century line the walls. The west entrance has three orders with a hood and stops, and the west window has four lights. The four-bay north aisle contains three fourteenth-century three-light windows between gabled buttresses. A blocked thirteenth-century entrance with missing shafts is evident. A cornice with gargoyles and embattled parapet crowns the aisle. A west lancet is also present. The four-bay south aisle has a similar cornice and parapet with three fourteenth-century three-light windows and a gabled buttress. A nineteenth-century gabled porch with gabled buttresses projects from the south side. Its entrance has three orders with foliate capitals, and above sits a niche with a nodding ogee canopy and statue of St Mary. Two-light straight-headed side windows and an inner entrance of two orders with stiff-leaf capitals complete the porch.

Internally, the chancel has five-bay arcades carried on keeled quatrefoil columns. Nineteenth-century arch-braced roofs span the space. The chancel south aisle retains a west arch with foliate capitals and a restored double piscina. The crossing has rebuilt arches of three orders with transitional capitals and nineteenth-century ceiling beams with dog-tooth moulding. The north transept displays blind arcading with four diagonally set pinnacles to the north wall and a nineteenth-century roof; an arch to the east has been filled with an organ. The south transept has a west arch with stiff-leaf capitals, three lights to a wall passage above, and a canted inner angle. An inner west lancet features a passage between outer and inner windows. The nave has five-bay arcades on piers with demi-shafts and renewed Transitional capitals; nineteenth-century stenciling ornaments the arches. A rich fifteenth-century roof with moulded elements and bosses spans the nave. Over the east arch is a blind arcade with two trefoil-headed lights and an opening above; former roof lines remain visible.

The chancel is furnished with Minton tiles, nineteenth-century stalls and rail, an altar, riddel posts, tiled east wall, and nineteenth-century timber sedilia. A nineteenth-century vestry partition and 1909 organ occupy the north aisle. The north transept contains a fifteenth-century octagonal stoup. The nave houses a circa 1200 font of quatrefoil form on a plinth with lions and crouching figures; additional figures ornament the re-entrant angles with inscriptions to the rim and plinth, mounted on a nineteenth-century base. Nineteenth-century pews with rich fleuron finials and a nineteenth-century hexagonal pulpit on a post with cusped ogee panels furnish the nave. An organ dating from 1789 to 1790, extended in 1909 and moved to its present position in 1974, stands at the west end.

Monuments are abundant. A chest tomb to Sir Edward Aston, died 1568, and his wife Joan stands ex-situ in the north transept, featuring twisted colonnettes, figures to the sides, and two recumbent effigies, one damaged. A wall tablet with inscription and armorial bearing also commemorates them. A large wall tablet in a Gothick recess honours Barbara Clifford, died 1786, and her husband Thomas, died 1787, created by JF More, with a sarcophagus tablet above and obelisk with armorial bearing. A group of brass wall tablets adorns the north transept wall. The south transept contains a rich wall tablet to Humphrey Hodgetts, died 1730, with an apron of cherubs and an obelisk with armorial bearing above. The north aisle houses an 1878 wall tablet to Izaak Walton, died 1683, placed in a blocked entrance with a bust on a ledge by RC Bett. Many eighteenth and nineteenth-century wall tablets and some floor slabs, including two iron plates to Ann Gollins, died 1791, and John Gollins, died 1805, are distributed throughout the church.

Stained glass includes an east window dated 1844; a north transept east window by CE Kempe; a very good nave west window of 1850 by Gerente; a north aisle west window of 1846 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin; and further nineteenth and twentieth-century glass in the north transept and south aisle.

This represents a notable example of a large parish church with important restoration and rebuilding work undertaken by Sir Gilbert Scott, and many significant memorials. The font is a particularly important example of early thirteenth-century craftsmanship.