Anglican Church Of St Mary The Virgin

An Anglican parish church in broadly 13th-century style, designed by J G Bland and built between 1864 and 1882, with extensions added by J A Chatwin from 1891 to 1894. The church is constructed from two colours of local sandstone—red and cream—except for red brick walls to the exterior of the transept arches, which mark the impact of Second World War bombing. The roofs of the main church are concrete tile, while those of the east ends of the aisles are slate.

The church is oriented north-east to south-west. The plan comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel, north vestry, south organ chamber, and north porch.

Externally, the long elevations display five bays to the clerestoried nave and a slightly lower two-bay chancel. The westernmost nave bays have aisle windows of three lights below clusters of trefoils, set into pointed archways with colonnettes bearing carved capitals that include foliage and human heads. Paired plain lancets form the clerestory windows above. In place of transepts are continuations of the aisle in brick, with four lancets. The north porch features a steeply gabled roof and an elaborate Early English doorway decorated with zig-zag and foliate carving. The north vestry is similarly gabled and includes a lean-to vestry with comparable windows to those in the nave. The south side is similar but has a flush doorway instead of a porch in the western bay, and a 20th-century brick extension at the east end. The north and south sides of the chancel each carry two tall two-light windows with trefoils above, running full height. The west end is dominated by a tall window of paired lancets with cusped decoration and a circular window above, both surrounded by carved foliate decoration to the spandrels and a drip mould with zig-zag carving. Below this is a blind arcade of eight pointed arches carried on colonnettes with composite capitals and a continuous zig-zag carved drip mould. The east window features Decorated tracery with five tall lights, quatrefoils, cinquefoils, and glazed spandrels.

Inside, whitewashed brick walls rise above stone arcades. The five-bay arcades comprise pointed arches in bands of red and cream sandstone, springing from short round piers set on very high bases with carved foliate capitals. The nave features an arch-braced collar-rafter roof whose trusses are carried on moulded stone corbels; the chancel roof is a timber barrel vault. The floor of the aisles is laid in large stone flags, with the east end in polychrome tile. The westernmost bay is screened from the main body of the church by a pierced timber screen. The pews, most of which were lost in bombing, have been replaced with chairs. The chancel arch and transept arches spring from slender clustered columns with foliate capitals carved by Bridgman of Lichfield.

The interior is dominated by a sumptuous east end. The chancel windows are surrounded by red and cream banded stone, and those to the north and south sides are divided by full-height slender clusters of columns rising to foliate capitals that serve as corbels for the roof trusses. A high and elaborate carved alabaster reredos, made in 1903 by Bridgman of Lichfield, depicts Christ in Majesty flanked by angels carrying the symbols of the Passion. Matching panels with statues of the Archangels in canopied niches are set to either side of the reredos, with alabaster carvings carried around the returns. Above the reredos, in a Decorated window, is a stained glass window from designs by Burne-Jones and Philip Webb, depicting the Crucifixion. The timber altar bears painted angels in Pre-Raphaelite style. The altarpiece is carved from Devonshire marble with niches at either end housing figures of angels. The font and other furnishings date from the church's restoration in the 1950s, including a polygonal timber pulpit with canopy by P B Chatwin.

A lych gate in the west boundary wall of the plot has a buttressed sandstone base with a timber superstructure beneath a hipped roof with slate covering, surmounted by a cream-coloured terracotta cross. Timber gates are mounted in the gateway.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin was begun in 1864 to designs by J G Bland as a chapel of ease to St Eadburgha's in Yardley. The original building consisted of part of the nave, north and south aisles, and a north porch, with plans for transepts, chancel, vestries, and a south-west tower to follow. Progress was slow and dependent on donations. The church was consecrated in 1866, and a parish was created in 1867 from part of the parish of St Eadburgha. In 1878, work to complete the nave began with the addition of transept arches and the chancel arch. From 1891 to 1892, J A Chatwin enlarged the church further by adding the chancel, organ chamber, and vestries; work was not completed until 1894.

A stained glass window by Morris and Company to designs by Burne-Jones was installed in 1895 in memory of Reverend Frederick Thomas Swinburn, late Vicar of Acocks Green, and was paid for by his widow. Further stained glass was installed by various benefactors, including a large west window by Hardman and Company. In 1903, an elaborate alabaster reredos carved by Bridgman of Lichfield was added to the east end.

In 1940, the church suffered a direct hit from a large incendiary bomb that landed at the crossing. The church was severely damaged, losing its roofs, internal furnishings, and most of its stained glass and other decoration. Remarkably, the west window and reredos survived with only minute damage, and the arcades were very little damaged, with the structure remaining sound. The church was repaired during the 1950s with some modifications: the steeply pitched roof was replaced with a shallower roof, the clerestory height was increased, and the circular clerestory windows were replaced with taller rectangular windows. New furnishings were donated, including a new font, pulpit, and west screen. The transepts and tower were never built.