Parish Church Of St Mary

TL 36NW CONINGTON SCHOOL LANE (South Side)

5/13 Parish Church 31.8.62 of St. Mary

II*

Parish church. Fragments of re-used C12 stone. Tower, C14, nave rebuilt and tower buttressed c.1737 by Dingley Askham, inscription on wall monument 'in the Year 1737 he rebuilt this Church'. Family vault c.1740 south of nave and at half-basement level. Chancel rebuilt 1871, by W.M. Fawcett. Restorations 1902 and 1911 when the broach spire was rebuilt. Walls of pebble and limestone rubble, partly stuccoed; limestone and clunch dressings; ashlar spire, C18 red, and white brick. Lead and plain tile roofs. North elevation. Chancel with angle buttresses and parapet gable, two, Y-tracery windows flank central two-centred arched priest's door. Nave of C18 red brick with rusticated window jambs originally stuccoed with limestone imposts and key blocks. Large splayed red brick buttresses to tower; tower walls stuccoed to belfry height with restored two-trefoiled-light belfry window with quatrefoil, plain parapet; octagonal spire with roll-moulded angles and gabled spire-lights on cardinal faces. Five rainwater heads c.1737. Interior. Nave windows flanked internally by elliptical-headed recesses with keystones each with monuments to the Askham and Cotton families, (see R.C.H.M.), of note, one to Dame Alice Cotton, 1657 by Joshua Marshall (1629-1678); to Robert Cotton 1697 with signature 'G. Gibbons fecit', incised on a palm leaf at the base of the medallion, the only known monument to be signed by Grinling Gibbons; to Francis and Mary Askham 1748 and to Dingley Askham, 1781. For other monuments and floor slabs see R.C.H.M. Gallery with front of turned balusters, c.1737. Boarded C19 barrel roofs. Reset piscena C14 in chancel. Bell thought to be by William Brazier of Norwich c.1376 one of the earliest in the country. Reset C14 glass. Cole MSS CRO R.C.H.M. West Cambs Mon.1, p.55 Pevsner. Buildings of England p.324 Raven J.J. Church Bells of Cambs p.12-13 Gunnis, R. Dictionary of British Sculptors pp. 167,254

Listing NGR: TL3201166059