Parish Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building in the South Cambridgeshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 31 August 1962. A Medieval Church.
Parish Church of St Mary
- WRENN ID
- solitary-keep-jet
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- South Cambridgeshire
- Constituency
- South Cambridgeshire MP: Pippa Heylings (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 31 August 1962
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Parish Church of St Mary, Main Street, Hardwick
- OS grid reference
- TL 372 586
- Coordinates
- 52.20862, 0.00695
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Parish Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building, dating from the late 14th century, featuring a nave, chancel, and tower, with a notably earlier 14th century chancel window. The church was restored in 1901 by Mr. Rickett of Abingdon under the direction of Detmar Blow. The walls are constructed of field stones, with limestone and clunch dressings, and the roofs are made of tiles and slate.
On the south elevation, the tower consists of three stages, each offset, with a plinth and an embattled parapet, and it lacks buttresses. The belfry has a round-headed arch in a two-centred sealed arch. An octagonal spire made of ashlar features spirelights. The nave has a parapet gable that extends as a buttress to the east and a diagonal buttress to the west. There are three two-light traceried windows, and the south doorway has chamfered jambs and a moulded head, leading to a 15th-century south porch with semi-octagonal shafts and a four-centred arch.
The chancel includes a diagonal buttress of two stages, one early 14th-century window with two trefoiled lights and net tracery, and another window with two cinquefoiled lights and a quatrefoil. Inside, the chancel arch is from the 15th century, featuring semi-octagonal shafts and two chamfered orders, while the tower arch has three chamfered orders. The church boasts fine 15th-century queen-post roofs in both the chancel and nave, adorned with embattled cornices. The font is an octagonal bowl with a splayed underside set on a modern base, dating from the 13th century. There is a piscina with a four-centred arch from the 15th century, a Gothic cast iron communion rail from around 1900, and an oak chest from the 17th century.
Local climate
Parish Church of St Mary sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 97% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 85% 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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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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