Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin, South Benfleet

This parish church displays a long building sequence spanning from the 12th to the 20th century. The west end of the nave dates to the 12th century, with a 13th-century chancel arch. The early 14th century saw construction of the west tower. During the 15th century, major rebuilding occurred: the chancel, chancel arch, south arcade and south aisle were reconstructed, followed by a late 15th-century south porch and around 1500 the north aisle and clerestorey. The 17th century brought repairs, with significant restorations undertaken in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building employs ashlar, rubble, flint and Roman brick, with a timber south porch and red plain tiled roofs throughout.

The chancel features angle buttresses on its east wall, which contains a 19th or 20th-century three-light window with a roundel above, set under two centre arched heads with label and stops. The north wall has angle and centre buttresses, containing two repaired 15th-century windows of two cinquefoiled lights with tracery above, under two centre arched heads with labels. The south wall has two similar windows with a chamfered two-centre arched doorway of the same period between them.

The north aisle is crenellated, with angle and two centre buttresses; a blocked two-centre arched doorway lies between the latter buttresses. Its east wall contains a 20th-century window of two cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in a four-centred head, while its west wall has a window similar to those in the chancel's north wall. The western north wall window matches the east wall window, and an eastern window contains three cinquefoil lights under a four-centred head. The clerestorey displays three 15th-century windows of two cinquefoil lights under square heads.

The nave's eastern gable contains three small 16th-century windows with rounded heads, one now blocked.

The west tower rises in three stages. Each face of the ground floor has a small trefoiled light with a square head; similar windows appear on the south and west faces of the second stage. The belfry contains north, south and west windows of two trefoiled lights under square heads with labels, some restored. Clock faces mark the north and south walls. Flint flushwork bands decorate the upper stage. Buttresses strengthen the west, north-west and south-west angles of the first stage.

The south aisle is crenellated and contains four 15th-century windows similar to those in the chancel. Between the two south wall windows stands a 15th-century doorway with moulded jambs and a two-centred head. The clerestorey has three lights matching those in the north wall.

The south porch is particularly fine, comprising two bays each containing four cusped side wall lights. A moulded and chamfered two-centred arch with traceried spandrels spans the entrance, with ogee side lights featuring vertical tracery above. The interior has a moulded and crenellated tie beam with three panels, each with moulded mullions and a traceried head. Moulded bargeboards frame the roof. The interior features a central moulded hammer beam with moulded arched braces, moulded wall plates, and moulded and crenellated side purlins. Side seats line the interior. All lights have 20th-century wrought-iron mullions, with 19th and 20th-century restorations evident. A segmental-headed stoup stands east of the doorway.

Within the chancel, a four-bay roof is supported by four-armed octagonal crown posts with moulded capitals and bases, and moulded wall plates. A 15th-century piscina features moulded jambs and a cinquefoiled arch in a square head. The chancel contains 19th and 20th-century stained glass windows and 20th-century dado panelling to the choir walls. A painted reredos was designed by Sir Charles Nicholson and painted by his mother, Lady Nicholson. A traceried screen by Sir Charles Nicholson has its lower panels painted by his daughter, Miss Barbara Nicholson. A rood beam displays Christ and the two Maries.

The early 15th-century chancel arch displays two hollow-chamfered orders, with mid-13th-century responds featuring three attached shafts, continuous moulded capitals and bases.

The nave has a 20th-century three-cant roof supported by four plain tie beams. Four carved face corbel stones adorn the north and south walls. A 20th-century octagonal pulpit stands within the nave. The font comprises a 13th-century Purbeck marble stem with a 19th-century square bowl featuring three roundels to each face, a foliate-carved soffit, four side shafts, and a moulded base. The west wall retains a 12th-century doorway with a round head and imposts and jambs of two orders. High up are two blocked 12th-century round-headed windows with wide splays. A 20th-century organ to the specification of Sir Sidney Nicholson was built by Harrison and Harrison of Durham.

The north arcade contains two centre arches of two chamfered orders, with columns featuring four attached shafts, moulded capitals and bases. The north aisle contains a niche at the angle of the north and east walls and a rood loft stairway. Medieval glass quarries and borders survive in the east and north-west windows. Since 1945, many windows throughout the church have been filled with stained glass figures.

The north aisle also holds a piscina with a chamfered segmental pointed head and a round drain. The south arcade similarly displays two-centre arches of two chamfered orders, with octagonal piers and semi-octagonal responds, moulded capitals and bases; some capitals reuse circa 1300 work. A square-headed niche sits in the east respond.

The south aisle contains a niche with a pointed head in the south wall and a piscina with moulded jambs and a trefoiled ogee head. A 13th-century coffin lid inscribed in Norman French, said to read "Here lies Marcelie, Pray for her soul," is preserved within.

The west tower contains a south-east internal spiral staircase of timber with an octagonal newel. A monumental slab, reputed to lie under the chancel floor directly in front of the altar, was rediscovered in 1978. The indents and three pairs of trefoils adjoining the bracket stem were all that remained of the bracket brass; fragments from elsewhere have since been relaid. The slate commemorates Thomas Blosme and his wife Olive, laid circa 1400 when she died; Thomas died in 1440.