Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I listed building in the Colchester local planning authority area, England. First listed on 7 April 1965. A C16 Church.

Church of St Mary the Virgin

WRENN ID
last-soffit-starling
Grade
I
Local Planning Authority
Colchester
Constituency
Witham MP: Priti Patel (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
7 April 1965
Type
Church
Address
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Wick Road, Layer Marney
OS grid reference
TL 928 174
Coordinates
51.82211, 0.7965
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, located on Layers Marney Wick Road, is a Grade I listed building largely rebuilt in the early 16th century using red brick. The west tower features decorative diapering in flared headers, diagonal stone-dressed buttresses, embattled parapets, and a polygonal staircase tower. The west window has a four-centred head and intersecting tracery. The church includes an embattled south aisle, a south porch, and a south chancel porch, with all windows having four-centred heads in brick. The east window is made of stone and consists of five trefoiled ogee and transomed lights with vertical tracery, set within a four-centred head. The east gable is topped with a crow-stepped parapet.

Inside, the nave has a north arcade with two bays featuring four-centred arches of three moulded orders, labels, and shield stops. An upper door leading to the rood loft remains, also with a four-centred head. At the west end of the north aisle, there is a priest's chamber that contains remnants of a fireplace and an octagonal chimney stack. The south porch of the nave has a moulded and four-centred outer arch made of brick, with double chamfered responds that have moulded capitals and bases. Above the porch is a niche with a coved soffit, and the side walls have windows with three transomed and four-centred lights, featuring moulded jowls and labels. The porch roof is constructed in five cants.

The original south door is made of nailed cross boards. The nave roof consists of seven cants with four commons per bay, and the principal frames are heavily moulded with heavy tie beams. The chancel roof also has seven cants, with inclined ashlars, side purlins above the common collars, and compassed wind braces that rise to the apexes of the principal rafters. The church contains many notable internal features, including a 15th-century rood screen with ogee arches and a 14th-century alabaster tomb with an effigy in armor, featuring a bascinet. There is also a tomb dedicated to Henry Lord Marney, dated 1523, which has a recumbent effigy. On the north wall of the nave, there is a large painted figure of St Christopher bearing Christ and holding a ragged staff, set against a landscape background that is presumed to date from the early 16th century.

Local climate

Church of St Mary the Virgin sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 680 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 50% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 17 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 83% of listed buildings. Of these, 9 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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