Church Of St Mary

Church of St. Mary

A parish church on the west side of Middle Street in Ilmington. The building dates from the mid 12th century with significant alterations and additions through to the 16th century. The church was restored in 1846, 1911 and 1936. It is constructed from limestone ashlar and squared, coursed rubble with tile roofs.

The church comprises a chancel with vestry to the north, a nave with north and south transepts, a south porch, and a west tower.

The chancel is of two bays and dates from the 12th century, rebuilt in the early 13th century. It has diagonal offset buttresses and a coped gable. To the east is a 19th-century four-light window in Perpendicular style with a chamfered surround and hood mould with label stop. The south wall features a pointed priest's doorway with a moulded surround and stiff leaf capitals, now with a later plank door. The hood mould has 13th-century carved head label stops. A similar carved head appears at the apex below a single pointed lancet. To left and right are square-headed windows with two round-headed lights each, with hollow chamfered surrounds and hood moulds with carved label stops. To the north, a vestry with a plinth, diagonal buttresses and moulded coped parapet contains a 14th-century two-light cusped window to the north with curvilinear tracery and a chamfered surround. Either side of the vestry are single chamfered lancets.

The nave is of three bays and dates from the 12th century, with a late 14th-century clerestory. It has a moulded coped parapet. To the south is an early 16th-century porch with a moulded plinth, diagonal offset buttresses, and a four-centred hollow chamfered arch. The hood mould has label stops. To the east and west of the porch are square-headed two-light windows with iron transoms and mullions ending in spear heads. A four-centred arched doorway has a chamfered and hollow-chamfered surround. Above are the remains of a 12th-century arch with a zig-zag mould. A 15th-century cusped niche with a poppy head breaks through the 12th-century arch. A 20th-century plank door features a carved mouse on the surround. To the right of the porch is a blocked doorway of two orders with shaft and capital, now with a leaded window. To the left of the porch is a 14th-century two-light window with reticulated tracery and a double-chamfered surround.

The clerestory to the north and south has three two-light cusped square-headed windows with double chamfered surrounds.

The north transept is 13th-century, enlarged in the 15th century, with diagonal offset buttresses, a coped parapet and plinth. To the north is a 19th-century three-light window in Decorated style. To the east and west are two 15th-century two-light square-headed windows with hood moulds and carved label stops. A 19th-century three-light window to the east is in Decorated style. The south transept, dating from the 15th century and almost entirely rebuilt in the 19th century, has Perpendicular style windows to the east and west, with a three-light window to the south in Decorated style.

The west tower is of three stages. The first two stages are 12th-century with broad, flat buttresses and 12th-century round-headed lancets to the south and west. The 15th-century top stage has a castellated parapet with a gargoyle below on each side. The 15th-century bell-chamber has two-light cusped windows with stone slate louvres. A 12th-century stair turret has single lights to the west with a further 15th-century light to the top stage. A painted sundial decorates the south face of the tower, with a clock to the west dated 1868.

Interior

The chancel features a 13th-century four-bay niche arcade to north and south with hollow-chamfered surrounds. A 15th-century triple sedilia with cusps, restored in the 19th century, and a small cusped piscina to the left are also present. A restored 12th-century round-headed chancel arch of two orders of shafts and capitals separates the chancel from the nave. The north transept arch is 13th-century with a round shaft and capital to the north-west and a 19th-century polygonal respond to the east, with a hood mould with a 13th-century carved head label stop. The south transept arch is 19th-century in 15th-century style. A 12th-century round-headed quadruple-chamfered tower arch stands at the base of the tower, with a square-headed stair turret door in the tower. The 15th-century roofs, restored in the 20th century, rest on stone corbels.

The church contains 19th-century stained glass in the chancel and an Old Spanish altar table. A 15th-century effigy of a priest lies in the tower. A stone tablet in the north transept was set up by John Palmer for his father Richard, who died in 1582, and his own wife Frances, who died in 1601. A brass commemorates the Brent family from 1595 to 1666, with brasses of the Brent wyvern to either side. Further brasses commemorate Biles Palmer and Edmund, son of Henry Jones, died 1667. One 18th-century and two early 19th-century marble tablets are mounted in the nave walls. Grave slabs in the nave record Joan Canning of Foxcote, 1685, and Thomas Canning, 1716. Five bells cast by Henry Bagley in 1641 hang in the tower. 20th-century pews feature 'mouse' carvings by the mouse man of Kilburn. A fine 16th-century chest is housed in the tower.