Parish Church Of St Mary The Less

TL 65 NW WESTLEY WATERLESS

6/171 Parish Church of 19.8.59 St Mary the Less (formerly listed as Church of St Mary)

II*

Parish church; chancel early C13, nave and aisles C14, west gable wall rebuilt c.1855 after collapse of C12 round tower. Chancel reroofed C19. Flint, brick and rubble walls originally plastered; clunch and Barnack limestone dressings. Slate and plain tile roofs. Wooden spirelet with lead covering and iron cross. Nave of three bays, arcades with two-centred arches of two chamfered orders, octagonal piers with octagonal capitals moulded on four faces, chancel arch similar but with grotesques on capitals. Windows of north and south aisles foiled-two-lights in two-centred arches with fragments of C14 glass and Flemish glass. East window of three-lights; C13 lancet window and C14 ogee-crocketed-niche in south wall of chancel. Aisles and chancel with foiled piscinae. C14 stone effigy in south aisle. Brass floor monument to Sir John de Crete and his wife c.1325, noteworthy for being one of the earliest, possibly by Walter le Masun. Font C13, octagonal with lightly carved panels. Three tomb covers C13 fixed to west wall. Graffiti inscription on east reveal of easterly south aisle window records in C14 arabic the produce of the church vines. Small C19 pipe organ originally from Reach Congregational Chapel. Pevsner, Buildings of England, p.478 VCH, Vol. VI, p.180. R.K.M. Davies, The Parish Church of Westley Waterless, 1970. RCHM (Cambs. Notes, 1951).

Listing NGR: TL6179256222