Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade II* listed building in the Central Bedfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 23 January 1961. A Medieval Church.
Church of St Mary the Virgin
- WRENN ID
- tenth-baluster-gilt
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Central Bedfordshire
- Constituency
- Mid Bedfordshire MP: Blake Stephenson (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 23 January 1961
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Mary the Virgin, Clophill
- OS grid reference
- TL 091 388
- Coordinates
- 52.03734, -0.40956
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a former parish church that is now a redundant ruin, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. It is constructed from coursed ironstone rubble with ashlar dressings. The remaining structure includes the walls of the nave and the west tower.
The nave features large 4-centred arched windows on both the north and south elevations, although all tracery has been removed. The south elevation also has a semi-octagonal embattled stair turret to the east and a 4-centred arched doorway to the west. The east elevation was rebuilt after the chancel was demolished in the mid-19th century and reworked in the 20th century, featuring a narrow 4-centred arch.
The tower is divided into three stages and retains parts of an embattled parapet, along with a semi-octagonal stair turret on the southeast side. The lower stage has a 4-centred trefoiled 3-light window, while the top stage includes trefoiled 2-light pointed-arched windows on each side. There is also a niche on the south elevation of the lower stage. The church is designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Local climate
Church of St Mary the Virgin sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 83% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 53% 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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