Church of St Mary and All the Saints

Parish church of St Mary and All Saints, Willingham

This is a parish church mainly dating from the early 14th century, with later additions and restorations. The church was substantially restored in 1825 (south aisle and spire) and again in 1891 (general restoration).

The building is constructed of coursed limestone and limestone rubble with dressed stone quoins, supplemented by some clunch. The tiled nave roof and stone slate roofs to the sacristy are original in character, though the roofs of the chancel and south aisle are obscured by parapets.

The plan comprises a west tower with broach spire, a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, chancel, and sacristy.

The west tower is of early 14th-century date, built in coursed limestone. It rises in three stages on a double-splayed plinth with five-stage angle buttressing and is embattled. It features a main cornice with a frieze of boss ornament and corner turrets with pinnacles surmounted by finials. The broach spire, also early 14th-century and built in limestone ashlar, has a gabled lucerne to each side and is buttressed from the corner turrets. The buttresses feature running ornament to the upper edge and pierced tracery in the spandrels. The fenestration is restored.

The nave, of coursed rubblestone with dressed limestone quoins, has a clerestory with three windows on each side, each containing two cinquefoil lights in a square head. The south aisle, parapetted and of similar early 14th-century date to the nave, features restored reticulated tracery, except for a surviving 13th-century window in the west wall, possibly from an earlier church. Large grotesque gargoyles occur at the main cornice.

The south porch is of similar early 14th-century date and was rebuilt in 1896. It has a gabled parapetted roof and mutilated corner pinnacles with finials, and a niche of clunch. The outer two-centred arch is restored at the base and is flanked by half-round engaged columns with moulded capitals, the column shafts having a large fillet. The inner arch, also early 14th-century, features continuous hollow and roll-moulded orders. The porch walls incorporate fragments of moulded stone, some possibly from an 11th-century church. The porch is laid out in two bays with restored arcading to the side walls. The roof, of late 15th-century date, has hollow and roll moulding to the purlins, ridge piece, and bosses at intersections.

The chancel has been extensively restored in early 14th-century style externally. A sacristy or north chapel stands on the north side of the chancel. Unlike the rest of the church, it is built of coursed limestone ashlar with a steeply pitched stone slate roof, the eaves having a hollow and roll moulded cornice also of stone. The east window contains two cinquefoil lights with a foiled head in a two-centred arch. One small two-light window occurs to the side and west walls, and these are original. A 15th-century brick rood loft stair turret stands in the angle between the chancel and north aisle.

Interior

The nave arcade comprises six bays with double-chamfered two-centred arches on octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases. The fine angel roof to the nave is in twelve bays and dates to the 15th century, though it was restored in the 19th and 20th centuries. It employs a double hammer-beam construction, with three tiers of angels with outstretched wings carved to the soffits of the hammer beams. The remaining roof timbers are also richly moulded. The north and south aisles feature fine 15th-century roofs.

The north aisle retains part of a 14th-century parclose screen to the former chapel. The tower panels to the nave are painted with a bird and foliate design. The south aisle has a more intact 15th-century parclose screen with fragments of original painting. 14th-century wall tombs with ogee arches occur in both the north and south chapels; the one in the north chapel is double. The chancel screen retains original work in the lower, closed stage. The chancel was much restored in the 19th century but retains the original rear arches of 14th-century date and a blocked 13th-century window with a wide splay in the north wall. The piscina and sedilia have been much restored. The pulpit is 16th-century, restored in 1894.

The sacristy is laid out in four unequal bays and has a fine collar rafter roof of clunch. It contains three chamfered, two-centred arches, each pierced with tracery. A piscina occurs in the south wall. The rafters are carried on original mask corbels.

The font is 15th-century, octagonal with panelled sides decorated with quatrefoils on an octagonal stem. The nave was richly painted in the 15th century, and some areas have survived; the figure of St Christopher has been restored.