Parish Church of St Mary the Less is a Grade II* listed building in the East Cambridgeshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 19 August 1959. Church.
Parish Church of St Mary the Less
- WRENN ID
- keen-oriel-lark
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- East Cambridgeshire
- Constituency
- Ely and East Cambridgeshire MP: Charlotte Cane (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 19 August 1959
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Parish Church of St Mary the Less, Westley Waterless
- OS grid reference
- TL 617 562
- Coordinates
- 52.18054, 0.36499
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Parish Church of St Mary the Less is a Grade II* listed building located in Westley Waterless. The church features a chancel dating from the early 13th century, with the nave and aisles constructed in the 14th century. The west gable wall was rebuilt around 1855 after the collapse of a 12th-century round tower, and the chancel was reroofed in the 19th century. The church is built with flint, brick, and rubble walls that were originally plastered, and it has clunch and Barnack limestone dressings. The roofs are covered with slate and plain tiles, and there is a wooden spirelet topped with lead and an iron cross.
The nave consists of three bays, featuring arcades with two-centred arches made up of two chamfered orders, supported by octagonal piers with capitals that are moulded on four faces. The chancel arch is similar but includes grotesques on the capitals. The windows in the north and south aisles are foiled two-lights set in two-centred arches, with remnants of 14th-century glass and Flemish glass. The east window has three lights, and there is a 13th-century lancet window along with a 14th-century ogee-crocketed niche in the south wall of the chancel. Both the aisles and chancel contain foiled piscinae.
Notable interior features include a 14th-century stone effigy in the south aisle, a brass floor monument to Sir John de Crete and his wife dating from around 1325, which is significant for being one of the earliest examples, possibly crafted by Walter le Masun. The font is 13th-century, octagonal in shape, and adorned with lightly carved panels. There are three 13th-century tomb covers affixed to the west wall. An inscription in Arabic from the 14th century, found on the east reveal of the easterly south aisle window, records the produce of the church's vines. Additionally, there is a small 19th-century pipe organ that originally came from Reach Congregational Chapel.
Local climate
Parish Church of St Mary the Less 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 77% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 53% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 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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