Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I listed building in the Bedford local planning authority area, England. First listed on 13 July 1964. A Predominantly C14 (medieval) Church.
Church of St Mary the Virgin
- WRENN ID
- waning-beam-raven
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Bedford
- Constituency
- North Bedfordshire MP: Richard Fuller (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 13 July 1964
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Predominantly C14 (medieval)
- Address
- Church of St Mary the Virgin, Church Lane, Melchbourne and Yielden
- OS grid reference
- TL 011 671
- Coordinates
- 52.29323, -0.51867
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I listed building, primarily dating from the 14th century. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings. The church features a chancel with a north vestry, a nave, a south aisle, a south porch, and a west tower topped by a short broach spire. The chancel was remodeled in the mid-14th century and retains a 13th-century door in its south wall, along with a 14th-century piscina and double sedilia on the south wall, and an Easter sepulchre on the north wall. The vestry is likely from the 14th century. The chancel arch is also from the 14th century. The nave contains a blocked 13th-century doorway and a 19th-century organ chamber on the north wall. The clerestory dates from the 15th century, and the roof retains some 15th-century timbers, which are adorned with roughly carved human heads and shields. There is a 14th-century tomb recess with an effigy on the north wall, and the south arcade consists of four bays supported by projecting corbels resting on grotesque figures. The south aisle, which was widened in the 14th century, includes remnants of a 13th-century east lancet. The south wall features a 14th-century piscina and a tomb canopy with a crocketed gable and pinnacles. There are fragmentary wall paintings, including St James on the east wall, which is partially obscured by a memorial from 1792, and St Christopher along with a masonry pattern on the south wall. The church also has a 15th-century octagonal font with a crocketed conical wooden cover, a pulpit, and some pews dating from around 1500. The 15th-century south porch, along with the south aisle, nave, and chancel, is topped with crenellated parapets. The west tower, built in the mid-14th century, has three stages and features a band of carved foliage, animals, and grotesque heads beneath the spire eaves.
Local climate
Church of St Mary the Virgin sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 96% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 91% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 52% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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