Parish Church of St Mary

TL 17 SW 11/4

BARHAM AND WOOLLEY WOOLLEY Parish Church of St Mary

28.1.58

GV II

Parish church now ruinous. Surviving ruined walls of west tower and doorway late C14, south nave wall and blocked doorway, south aisle wall and part of jamb to south doorway and buttresses and wall of south transept c.1300; the south transept and south aisle were rebuilt in 1914 and tower in 1932. Walls of pebbles and limestone rubble with limestone dressings. The blocked south doorway of nave has Romanesque chevron ornament, the west doorway of the tower is two-centred with double ogee moulding and with hollow-chamfered label and plain stops.

HISTORY: the church formerly consisted of a west tower with spire, a nave with north and south aisles, a small south transept chapel and a chancel. The church is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, but the Romanesque stone chevrons built into the south nave wall suggest the existence of a building here in the 12th century. The chancel, nave, aisles and transepts were built c1300. The nave was lengthened and the tower and spire built in the late 14th century. The chancel was restored in 1857; the south transept and aisle were rebuilt in 1907, and the north aisle restored in 1914. The nave arcades were strengthened and the tower and spire restored in the 1930s. The church was abandoned c1960.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: this church survives in a ruinous state, but the fragments of Norman fabric, and the more substantial fabric of c.1300 and of the C14, with the surviving west doorway, are important. It is a site of historical and social significance; the ruins and the churchyard, with headstones, bear witness to centuries of religious observance within this parish. Churches are often expressions of high art and have an iconic status within the nation's history.

Listing NGR: TL1497074498