Church Of Saint Mary

Church of Saint Mary, Stoneleigh

A parish church built of red sandstone ashlar, with origins in the late 12th century comprising a chancel, nave and west tower. The structure was substantially rebuilt in the mid 14th century when the south aisle was added, using a lighter coloured sandstone ashlar for this addition. Later additions include a vestry constructed in 1665 and a north chapel of early 19th-century date designed by C S Smith of Warwick.

The chancel retains its late 12th-century character in its lower portions, with the bases of the walls to a height of 10 feet remaining from this period. Above this height the walls are of mid 14th-century construction and reduced in thickness by splayed offsets. The east gable contains a three-light trefoil window with tracery and pointed arch, its label featuring head stops. At the apex is a small blocked quatrefoil light set within a circle. The south wall of the chancel has a two-light window of splayed orders with a flat head.

The vestry was built in 1665 by Lord Leigh as both a burial vault for his family and a vestry space. It features a splayed plinth, moulded string course, and a very high parapet wall with pinnacles. In the east wall is a combined door and tracery window with a four-centred arch and hood mould. On the south side a traceried window of three trefoil lights with pointed arch and hood mould provides light.

The north chapel, built in the early 19th century originally as a mausoleum for the Leigh family but now serving as a chapel, harmonises with the chancel design. It is lit on the north by a three-light tracery window and on the east and west sides by single tracery windows of three ogee lights. A modern oak door opens from the east side.

The north wall of the nave was almost entirely rebuilt in the mid 14th century. It contains two clerestory windows, each of two trefoil lights with square heads. Below these are three tracery windows equally spaced; the easternmost is of mid 14th-century date while the other two are late copies of it. Each of these windows has three trefoil lights with moulded jambs and mullions, pointed arches and hood moulds. Between the two later windows is a blocked late 12th-century doorway projecting eight inches from the wall face.

The south walls of the south aisle were entirely rebuilt in the 19th century. At this time the south porch was destroyed, its position being marked by a dummy doorway into which an inscribed tablet from the original porch was built. The tablet commemorates Humphrey How, porter to Lord Leigh, who died on 6 February 1688. The south aisle is lit on the south side by two three-light and one two-light tracery windows with trefoil lights. The west wall retains an original mid 14th-century three-light trefoil window.

The west tower rises in four stages, with the upper storey added in the mid 14th century. Apart from the west wall, which was entirely rebuilt, most of the third stage is of late 12th-century date. The top stage is set back by splayed offset and has in each face a two-light trefoil window with four-centred arch. The tower has a plain parapet with crocketted pinnacles at the angles. The west doorway is an early 19th-century insertion with a four-centred head and deep hollow splay, above which is a four-centred two-light trefoil tracery window.

Interior

The chancel features late 12th-century wall arcading on its east and south walls. In the south wall is an elaborate recess in late 14th-century Gothic style, constructed in 1850, which houses an alabaster table tomb to Chandos, Baron Leigh. The north-east corner of the chancel contains a large elaborate memorial in black and white marble to Alice, Duchess Dudley and her daughter, erected in 1668. This memorial displays two recumbent female figures beneath a canopy supported on eight Ionic columns, with angels holding trumpets and drawing back curtains on either side.

The chancel arch is of late 12th-century date, consisting of a semi-circular arch of three orders. The tower arch is partially obscured by an early 19th-century gallery; below the gallery are half-round responds and detached shafts with fluted capitals, contemporary with the chancel arch.

The south arcade of the nave comprises three bays with pointed arches of two splayed orders supported on octagonal pillars with moulded capitals and bases, all of mid 14th-century date. Oak panelled bow pews and a pulpit date from the early 19th century. A 12th-century font at the east end of the south aisle is circular in form and contains two arcaded niches with figures of Apostles.