Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

Parish church of 13th-century origin, extensively rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries. The building is constructed of carstone and fieldstone with clunch and limestone dressings.

The church comprises a west tower, nave with transeptal chapels and north and south aisles, north and south porches, and a chancel.

The west tower originates from the 13th century but was rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries. It rises in three stages and is crowned with a spike, leaded parapet, and crenellated top with a moulded main cornice featuring central beast gargoyles at the corners. The tower has a chamfered plinth and two-stage angle buttressing. The west doorway is set within a two-centred continuously moulded arch in a square head with a label. Above this, the west window contains three cinquefoil lights within a four-centred arch, with label and mask stops. The bell stage features buttresses of clasping pilaster strips and cinquefoil openings with vertical tracery in their two-centred arches of three chamfered orders, set within square heads with labels.

The nave is of carstone, originally 13th century but remodelled in the 14th and 15th centuries. It has a crenellated parapet and a clerestory of 14th or 15th-century date. The south aisle is constructed of fieldstone and also has a crenellated parapet, with 14th to 15th-century fenestration of three cinquefoil lights in four-centred arches.

The south porch is built of carstone with a crenellated parapet, gabled profile, diagonal two-stage buttresses, and an outer arch dating to the 15th century. The outer arch is of clunch and has been repaired. It is a two-centred arch set within a square head. The south transeptal chapel, also crenellated, is of fieldstone. Its south wall contains a window of four cinquefoil lights within a four-centred arch.

The chancel originates from the 13th century and was extended in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is constructed of carstone with clunch and limestone dressings, featuring a crenellated parapet and an east gable cross set on a carved corbel. The south wall has two windows, each containing three cinquefoil lights in four-centred arches with labels and mask stops. A label at sill height is carried over the south doorway, which has three continuous moulded orders. The east window contains four cinquefoil lights in a four-centred arch.

The north transeptal chapel dates to the 14th or 15th century and is of fieldstone with a crenellated parapet. The north porch comprises two building periods. Its ground stage dates to the 14th century and is constructed of carstone with two-stage angle buttressing. The outer arch is two-centred with hollow and wave moulding; the arch itself is of clunch whilst the jambs are of sandstone. The side walls each contain a window of two cinquefoil lights with dagger tracery in two-centred arches. The parish room above, dating to the 15th century, is of fieldstone and is crenellated with beast gargoyles at the moulded main cornice. A newel stair turret occupies the angle between the porch and the north aisle.

Interior

The west tower arch is two-centred and double-sided. Each side has two chamfered orders, with the inner order carried on half-octagonal shafts with capital and base. Both the north and south nave arcades are 13th century, comprising five bays of two-centred arches of two chamfered orders on octagonal columns with moulded labels and bases. In the spandrels of four of the arches of the south arcade are carved stone bosses. The north aisle contains a 13th-century lancet window with deep splays and part of a recess, possibly for a tomb, set in a shallow trefoil arch. This recess was cut down to the east when the north transeptal chapel was added.

The nave roof is a crown-post roof of 14th or 15th-century date, featuring shallow arch bracing and foiled spandrels. The chancel arch is two-centred with two wave-moulded orders on its west side and chamfered orders on its east side. The south wall of the chancel has three seated sedilia with foiled ogee arches featuring running foliate ornament and finials. Adjacent to these is the piscina, which has an ogee arch set within a square head.

The communion rail, dated 1683, features twisted balusters on vases with a moulded rail. The rood screen dates to the 15th century but has been much rebuilt. It is arranged in five bays, including a larger central bay, with some original work remaining in the bay divisions, notably engaged octagonal shafts. Most of the choir stalls have been removed except for six return stalls at the west end, which retain carved misericords and prayer desks. Some of these retain old work including panelled ends with blank shields and poppy-head finials. Several 16th-century pews remain in the nave, featuring panelled fronts and ends divided by pilaster buttresses in two heights and having roll-moulded rails.

The font is 13th century, comprising an octagonal limestone bowl with two pointed-arch panels in each face, set on a central stone shaft with modern peripheral subsidiary shafts.

Monuments include a painted wooden panel of Philip Burton dated 1683 in the south chapel, and a wall monument to Ralph Lane (died 1732) and his wife Elizabeth (died 1754), also in the south chapel. This monument was created by E Bingham of Peterborough and is of polychrome marble with an inscription flanked by urns, an apron decorated with emblems of mortality, and above it a shield of arms within a broken pediment.