Church of St Mary is a Grade I listed building in the South Cambridgeshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 31 August 1962. Church.

Church of St Mary

WRENN ID
quiet-facade-magpie
Grade
I
Local Planning Authority
South Cambridgeshire
Constituency
South Cambridgeshire MP: Pippa Heylings (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
31 August 1962
Type
Church
Address
Church of St Mary, Church Street, Great Shelford
OS grid reference
TL 458 518
Coordinates
52.14589, 0.13045
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St. Mary is a parish church with origins dating back to the 12th and 14th centuries, but it was largely rebuilt in the early 15th century by Reverend Thomas Patesley, who died in 1411. In 1798, the west tower collapsed and was reconstructed further east within the nave. The 19th century saw restoration of the chancel and many of the church's windows. The building features coursed limestone, dressed clunch, clunch rubble, flint, and pebblestone, and has a low pitched, embattled roof. Its layout includes a west tower, nave, north and south aisles, and a chancel, with the west tower incorporating older materials. The tower has three stages and an octagonal bell stage topped with a needle spire. The west window, made of clunch, consists of three cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery, and there is a newel staircase in the north-west angle. The clerestorey windows and those of the south aisle were restored in the 19th century using Ketton stone in a perpendicular style. The south porch, dating from the 15th century, features a parish room above, is embattled, and has two-stage diagonal buttressing. An original niche with modern sculpture is located above the restored outer archway. The interior boasts a rib-vaulted ceiling with bosses, including a pelican.

Inside, the nave consists of four bays with two-centred arches of two chamfered orders on octagonal columns, which have typical high bases and moulded capitals. Moulded labels feature mask stops, some depicting angels. The chancel arch, dating from the same period, includes an opening for a rood loft staircase on the north side. The nave roof, from the 15th century, is constructed with alternating tie beams and hammer beams. Above the chancel arch is a 15th-century wall painting of the Doom. In the south aisle, there is a 14th-century piscina with a trefoil arch opening. The pulpit, made of oak, dates from 1636 and retains its original tester and staircase. Early 17th-century wall monuments can be found on the north and south walls of the chancel, along with a brass memorial for Thomas Patesley, who died in 1411, set into the chancel floor.

Local climate

Church of St Mary sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 700 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 93% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 76% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 52% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 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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