Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I listed building in the Peterborough local planning authority area, England. First listed on 19 March 1962. A Medieval Church.
Church of St Mary the Virgin
- WRENN ID
- brooding-fireplace-laurel
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Peterborough
- Constituency
- North West Cambridgeshire MP: Sam Carling (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 19 March 1962
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Mary the Virgin, Bridge End, Wansford, City of Peterborough
- OS grid reference
- TL 073 992
- Coordinates
- 52.58057, -0.41724
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, located on the west side of Wansford Bridge End, is a Grade I listed building. It features a Saxon window at the west end of the nave, which has a south doorway dating from around 1200, characterized by two orders of shafts and a round arch. The nave is adorned with a parapet and rectangular clerestorey windows. There are 17th-century rectangular windows on the south side of the nave, which have labels and four-centred arch lights, along with a south porch that has a moulded round arch and impost, featuring a date of 1663 in a moulded panel above the arch.
The north aisle includes a lancet window at the west end. The chancel, built in 1902, has a five-light east window with reticulated tracery. The church's unbuttressed west tower, dating from the 13th century, has three stops, with lancets in the first and second stages, and two-light bell-openings separated by a shaft. The early 14th-century stone broach spire is topped with lucarnes and a dog tooth frieze.
Constructed from coursed stone with freestone dressings, the church has roofs made of lead and Collyweston stone. Inside, there is an early 15th-century two-bay north arcade featuring quatrefoil section piers and abaci with nailhead decoration, along with double-chamfered round arches. The roof is an early 20th-century addition, while the furnishings date from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Notably, there is a good Norman font from around 1120, originally found at Sibberton Lodge in Thornhaugh parish. This cylindrical bowl is decorated with vine scrolls above arcading, depicting scenes of baptism, two figures holding books, and knights in combat, all in relief, although the stem is modern. The pulpit and sedilia are adorned with Jacobean panels.
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 85% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 31 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 60% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 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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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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