Parish Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin

This is a parish church with origins dating to around 1200, when the south aisle was constructed as part of a larger cruciform structure. The church was substantially rebuilt around 1300 and underwent further modifications in later centuries, making it an important example of medieval ecclesiastical architecture with continuous development.

The main phases of construction and alteration are as follows. The chancel and north nave arcade date to around 1300. The west tower was added in the early 14th century, reducing the length of the earlier nave by approximately 7 feet; evidence of the original arcade remains visible in the south face of the tower. The Paris chapel was added to the south side of the chancel in the late 15th century, and a north chapel (formerly known as the Millicent chapel, now housing the organ) was constructed around 1500. The aisle walls were rebuilt and a clerestory was added around 1500 or later, which blocked the earlier clerestory windows; these earlier windows were uncovered during 19th-century restoration work above the south arcade. Significant restoration and repairs occurred in the modern period: the south arcade was rebuilt by removal of a large pier (possibly from the original crossing) in 1870; the gallery, pews and three-decker pulpit were removed in 1872; the nave and aisle were reroofed in 1883–8, 1927 (by Fawcett), and 1936; the tower was strengthened in 1891; and plaster was removed from the walls in 1910. A spire is shown in Millicent's map of Linton from around 1600, suggesting the church originally had a different silhouette.

The exterior is constructed of flint rubble with dressings of clunch and limestone, with roofs of lead and red plain tiles. The south elevation displays the west tower in three stages with moulded strings and plinth continuous around angle buttresses, an embattled parapet, a lancet light, and an asymmetric gargoyle. The nave and aisle have embattled parapets. The clerestory features four cinquefoil three-light windows with drip moulds and four-centred arches. The aisle and chapel windows are similar but larger, and two-stage buttresses divide the aisle bays. The south porch has been restored with an embattled parapet and two-centred arch. The chancel lacks buttresses and has a cinquefoil three-light window with an inset priest's door. A sundial in the aisle parapet dates to the 18th century, and two further sundials (one medieval, one later) sit on a buttress. The tower comprises three stages with moulded strings and plinth.

The interior is architecturally complex. The nave has a south arcade of five and a half bays with two-centred arches of two moulded orders, featuring alternating round and octagonal piers with moulded capitals and restored bases. The two easternmost arches are 19th-century replacements for an original pier. Above the arcade are three clerestory windows dating to around 1200, circular and quatrefoil in form. The north arcade comprises three bays with two-centred arches of two chamfered orders, quatrefoil piers, and responds with moulded caps and modern bases. The south doorway has been restored with moulded jambs and a two-centred head. The chancel arch has two chamfered orders on triple-shafted responds with moulded caps and modern bases. A wide four-centred arched opening in the north wall opens to the Millicent chapel, with moulded caps and bases. A vestry door of 15th or 16th-century date retains patterned hinges. The western half of the chancel's south wall contains a two-bay arcade opening to the Paris chapel. The north wall and vestry feature 17th-century panelling. A modern gothic-style reredos incorporates some 15th-century tracery. The tower arch is two-centred with three continuous orders, and a belfry doorway features a 14th-century Caernarfon arch.

The chancel roof is of 14th-century date, of braced collar rafter type. The nave roof dates to the 15th century and comprises four bays with an embattled cornice, a tiebeam braced with carved braces to wall posts with octagonal pilasters mounted on carved stone corbels, moulded principal rafters, and cusped posts above the tiebeam.

The font is a 14th-century octagonal bowl on a shafted stem, with a late 15th or early 16th-century crocketed font cover at its corners. The pulpit incorporates some 15th-century tracery.

The church contains numerous monuments of considerable historical and artistic interest. In the chancel is a monument to Mary Fisher and others dated 1807. The south chapel (Paris chapel) contains a defaced limestone floor slab from the 17th or 18th century, a black marble floor slab to Magdeline Paris (1650), and a monument of clunch and black marble with apron swags, a death's head, and a pediment with a cartouche of arms surmounted by an urn, commemorating Timothy Bedford, Fellow of Trinity College (1691). The south aisle holds a large monument in white and grey marble featuring an obelisk and urn flanked by two standing figures on a bow-fronted pedestal with an inscription panel to Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Bacon of Catley Park, and her brother Peter Standley of Paxton Place, Huntingdonshire (dated 1726, 1780); it is signed by J. Wilton, Sculptor, 1782. Nearby is a small black marble floor slab inscribed with the remains of Elizabeth Bacon and Peter Standley, Esquire. The north chapel (Millicent chapel) contains a large monument of painted clunch with inset marble panels in two stages, embellished with architectural detail, commemorating John Millicent and Alice his wife and others (1655); a white marble composition with cartouche of arms to Charles Wright, Doctor of Theology and Professor of Arabic at Cambridge University (no date); a white marble slab to Elizabeth Owen (1805); and a grey marble slab to Edward Chapman (1695). The north aisle displays a white marble tablet with urn to Sarah Lonsdale (1806); a Grecian composition to Robert Millicent (1740) and Reverend Christopher Lonsdale (1785); a three-colour marble wall monument gilded with swag cartouche and two cherubs to Robert Flack (1704) and Anne his wife (1705); a similar monument surmounted by a bust to Susanne Green (1693); and another similar monument to George Flack (no date). A wall monument in the tower is of white marble with an oval in a border of swags and cherubs with a cartouche of arms, commemorating John Lone (1700) and his wife (1702); a similar monument commemorates John Line (1702). The south aisle contains a marble tablet in Grecian style, signed by Westmacott London, to Elizabeth Owen (1803). Monument brasses commemorate Henry Paris (1427, figure in armour) and Sir John Millicent (1577) with his wife.

The west window in the south wall of the south aisle contains 15th or 16th-century glass, reset in its current position.