Church of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a former parish church with origins in the 10th or 11th century, subsequently extended and altered during the 12th, 14th, 16th, 19th and early 20th centuries.

The building is constructed mainly of limestone rubble quarried locally at Pavenham, with ironstone from Northamptonshire, sandstone from the Greensand Ridge, and clunch quarried at Totternhoe also used. The roofs are clad in tiles except the vestry, which has a slate covering.

The church stands on the east side of St Mary's Square, surrounded by a small churchyard. Its plan comprises a 12th-century nave, a 16th-century north aisle, a 19th-century south aisle, a 10th or 11th-century crossing tower and south transept, a 12th-century north transept, a 14th-century chancel to the east, a 19th-century sacristry on the north side of the chancel, and a late 19th or early 20th-century vestry in the north-east corner.

The nave has embattled parapets but no clerestory windows. Its west end rises to a shallow pitch, with the central merlon of the embattled parapet surmounted by a stone cross. Gargoyles protrude from each side. The nave features 19th-century three-tiered buttresses at each end, with another pair flanking the central doorway. A stone plinth runs along the base with a moulded string course above. The doorway has a moulded square surround with spandrels containing carved foliage and plain shields, a hoodmould, and an inner four-centred head. The double-leaf door is timber. The west window was rebuilt in the 19th century (a blocked window arch is visible above) and consists of three cusped lights with moulded jambs and dropped tracery in 15th-century style under a four-centred head. The stained glass, made by Clayton and Bell, was a gift from the Nash family who ran a brewery in Bedford and depicts Christ suffering the little children to come to him. The flanking west sides of the north and south aisles have sloping embattled parapets and two-tiered diagonal buttresses. They are lit by 19th-century three-light windows with plain, uncusped three-centred heads, set in moulded square-headed surrounds with hoodmoulds.

The north aisle incorporates some herringbone stonework and reused moulded stone, including a section of a mullion. It has a parapet with moulded capping and is divided into four bays by three-tiered buttresses. The windows in the first, second and fourth bays from the left are probably 19th-century copies of 16th-century windows. The first two have four lights, whilst the last has three, all with plain three-centred heads set in moulded square-headed surrounds with hoodmoulds. In the third bay is a two-centred timber door with elaborate strap hinges, set in a projecting square porch, probably of 19th-century date, which has decayed quatrefoils in the top corners. The north transept, which follows, was once probably as high as the south transept but has been much altered, with the east wall rebuilt in the 19th century. It is one bay wide, under a steeply pitched roof, and is lit by a three-light window of the same design as those in the north aisle.

The 19th-century south aisle is divided into four bays by three-tiered buttresses. Each bay is lit by a square-headed window with four cinquefoiled lights and hoodmoulds. A moulded string course at cill level is interrupted by the buttresses. The south side of the south chancel has ashlared quoins, moulded kneelers, and some herringbone stonework below the window and in the gable head. Like the north chancel, it has one bay lit by a 19th-century window with three cinquefoiled lights with 15th-century style tracery. Affixed beneath the window are three stone memorial tablets of 19th-century date with moulded surrounds. High in the east wall of the south transept is a round-arched window of 10th or 11th-century date, now blocked with masonry. This window is also visible from the interior. Just below it on the right is what appears to be the jamb of a 13th-century lancet, its other jamb being overlapped by the chancel wall. Also on the east wall is a small timber door with strap hinges, set above ground level. In 1973 it was recorded that a stone staircase, set in the angle between the south transept and the chancel, led up to this door, with a corresponding wooden staircase inside, parts of which were described as ancient, giving access to the tower. There is now no trace of either of these staircases.

The central tower has heavy ashlar quoins, an embattled parapet with crocketted pinnacles and corner gargoyles, most or all of which were replaced during major repairs in 1994. The upper stage appears to have had two or three small plain round-headed windows on each face, traces of which are particularly evident on the south and west faces. The middle window, if there was one, has been destroyed by the insertion of two-light 15th-century windows with traceried heads and hoodmoulds. The upper stage has Norman round-headed openings on each face enclosing two smaller openings whose arches spring from a central shaft and shafted responds. The capitals are of Norman cushion type and, although the capitals of the responds are very weathered, there is evidence of a spiral volute.

The gabled east side of the chancel is dominated by a 19th-century window set within 14th-century jambs. It has five cinquefoiled lights with geometric tracery in the arched head consisting of two trefoils and a multifoil. The window dates to the 1870s and is a memorial to Thomas and Jane Green. The stained glass, thought to be by Clayton and Bell, depicts the Crucifixion and four saints. The small burial area enclosed by railings outside the east chancel wall was given to the Nash family, who donated the west window, and there are two 19th-century stone memorial tablets to the family to the right of the east window. The south side of the chancel has three bays, divided by three-tiered buttresses, and lit by 19th-century three-light trefoiled windows with traceried heads in 14th-century style. The jambs and heads are in part of 14th-century date. Below the window in the first bay from the left is a single-light trefoiled window with jambs of probably 14th-century date and 19th-century stained glass depicting St Mary. To the right of this, still in the first bay, is a two-pointed arched timber door with 19th-century stonework.

The north side of the chancel has been obscured by the later sacristry and vestry. The 19th-century sacristry is situated between the north transept and vestry. It has a pitched roof running parallel to the chancel and is divided into two bays by buttresses. The first (left-hand) bay is lit by a window with two ogee-arched lights and elongated trefoils in the two-pointed head. The second bay is blind. Following this is the early 20th-century vestry, which has a recessed timber door in a round-arched, deeply chamfered and moulded portal. Immediately to the left of the doorway the wall projects at a right angle in the form of a prominent buttress with stepped tiers and a gablet. This wall is pierced by a casement window with leaded lights set in a stone architrave. This has a distinctive moulded lintel consisting of a recessed circular motif flanked by wing-like shapes, giving the impression of an angel. After the buttress the rest of the north side of the vestry is blind. The gabled east side, which projects further than the chancel, has prominent stone buttresses and stone banding in the gable head. It is lit by a large ten-light window with decorative leaded lights, set in a stone surround divided by mullions and a transom, and has the same distinctive carved lintels already described.

Inside, the four-bay nave arcades are all painted white and have pointed arches with two moulded orders separated by a hollow. They spring from slender piers consisting of four half-shafts separated by a concave moulding, each shaft having a semi-octagonal moulded capital and base. The north arcade is thought to be 16th century whilst the south arcade is a 19th-century replica. The east bay of the latter has a half arch only, as part of the south wall of the formerly aiseless nave was probably left to support the tower. A Victorian timber screen, elaborately carved with Gothic motifs, crosses the west end of the nave, forming a western lobby and supporting a gallery. The floor of the nave is stone-flagged, and the early 20th-century ceiling is timber-clad with king-post trusses.

The four tower arches have all been redone, probably in the 19th century, and now have plain round arches. The arch on the west side is decorated with a Victorian dogtooth hoodmould, and above it is a small round-arched Norman opening. The east wall of the north transept was rebuilt in the 19th century. In the south transept are two round-headed windows of late Saxon date in the east and west walls. A larger splayed window was inserted below the earlier window in the east wall during the Norman period. This in turn was blocked up in the 14th century and a mural was painted inside, a fragment of which remains. It depicts the towers and roofscape of a walled city which could perhaps be the holy city of Jerusalem. There is a 20th-century spiral staircase in the north-west corner of the south transept giving access to the tower.

The chancel has a canted ceiling with timber ribs and slender beams which rest on moulded stone corbels decorated with painted angels or shields, all of 19th-century date. The only remaining parts of the organ chamber are the spandrels pierced with trefoiled arches. There is an Edwardian corner fireplace in the former vestry which has a carved timber overmantel and retains its glazed green tiles. The only church furniture to remain is the 19th-century timber pulpit with carved Gothic detailing, located in the south-east corner of the nave.

The church has a considerable number of marble memorial tablets dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries, mostly located in the chancel and sacristry. Amongst these is a Baroque memorial, carved in the form of a flowing cloth sheet, to Mary Lysons who died in 1682, and a neo-Classical monument depicting young people mourning at a pedestal with a palm tree behind. It was carved by J. Loft of 92 Dean Street, Soho, to commemorate Major William Mills who died in 1838.