Church Of Saint Mary The Virgin

The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin is a parish church located in Maulden, with origins dating back to the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. It underwent significant rebuilding in the 1858-1859 period in a 14th-century style, designed by Benjamin Ferrey. The church is constructed from coursed ironstone with ashlar dressings, featuring a mix of slate and clay tile roofs, some adorned with bands of fishscale tiles.

The layout includes a chancel, north vestry, nave, north aisle, south aisle, south porch, and a west tower. Most openings in the church are pointed-arched and showcase a variety of tracery. The chancel, which is from the 19th century, has a three-light east window, a single light window, and a two-light window on the south side, along with a small south doorway. The north vestry, also from the 19th century, features a two-light east window and a small north doorway next to a projecting gabled mausoleum.

The nave, rebuilt in the 19th century, includes four-bay arcades on both the north and south sides, supported by slender clustered columns with ornate foliate capitals. The chancel arch mirrors this design. The north aisle retains a substantially medieval west wall but has undergone extensive 19th-century alterations, with two north windows—one with two lights and the other with three lights—and a blocked 15th-century north doorway. The south aisle, also from the 19th century, has four-light windows on both the west and east sides, with three windows on the south elevation, two of which have three lights and one with two lights. The south porch is gabled and features a pointed-arched doorway.

The west tower has a lower part from the 14th century and an upper part from the 16th century. It consists of three stages, with angle buttresses and an embattled parapet, topped with a pyramidal roof. A stair turret projects from the southeast angle, and there are two-light windows on each side of the bell-stage, along with a two-light window on the middle stage of the west elevation, which has a small image niche below it.

Inside the church, there are various monuments, including a reset cover slab of a raised tomb with brasses to Richard Faldo, who died in 1576, and his wife and children, although some brasses are missing. Above this is a brass commemorating Anne Faldo, who died in 1594. At the west end of the nave, there is a marble wall monument featuring putti and drapery dedicated to Richard Allyn, who died in 1719, and his wife Dorothy, who died in 1720. The church also contains a 19th-century octagonal font on clustered columns, depicting biblical scenes involving water and children, along with 19th-century pews and roofs. The east chancel window was created in 1858 by Clayton and Bell.