Parish Church Of St Mary Magdalen

Parish Church of St Mary Magdalen

This parish church at Magdalen Laver consists of a nave dating from the late 11th century, a chancel from the 13th century, a west belfry from the 15th century, and a south porch from the 19th century. Both the nave and chancel were substantially altered during the 14th and 19th centuries.

The walls are constructed of flint rubble incorporating reused material from a Roman building, with dressings of tufa, limestone, clunch and Roman brick. The roof is covered with handmade red clay tiles, while the belfry is timber-framed and weatherboarded. The lower parts of the nave walls are set in herringbone courses. Identifiable fragments of Roman tegulae, opus signum and imbrex indicate that the church occupies the site of a Roman villa and is partly composed of its materials.

The chancel's east window is 19th century except for the chamfered splays, 2-centred rear-arch and label with two male headstops, which date from the 14th century. The north window is similarly 19th century apart from 14th-century splays and rear-arch. The south wall contains two windows: the eastern is 19th century externally with widely splayed jambs and segmental-pointed rear-arch, while the western is similar in style. Between these windows is a doorway, mainly 19th century, though the splays and segmental-pointed rear-arch date from the early 14th century. The chancel also features 15th-century diagonal buttresses. The roof is of seven cants with double collars, formerly lathed and plastered, dating from the late 14th century. Two tiebeams with plain chamfering and lamb's tongue stops support the roof. The western tiebeam contains a sunk panel with a defaced inscription reading "IT ANNO DON 1615 HL".

The nave's north wall contains two windows: the eastern has two lights and is mainly 19th century with a square head and internal label of 14th-century date, while the western is mainly 19th century with 15th-century splays and chamfered rear-arch. Below this western window are traces of a former doorway, and between the two windows is a small round-headed window of late 11th-century date, now blocked. The south wall has two windows matching those on the north side, and between them are traces of a former 11th-century tufa window. The south doorway features a moulding of two double ogees divided by a shallow cavetto, dating from the late 14th century, with a door bearing marginal fleuron decoration and a rear frame of portcullis type. The west wall contains three oculus windows (one partly collapsed) arranged irregularly and blocked internally, dating from the late 11th century. The west doorway has Roman brick jambs, chamfered imposts and a segmental head within a round arch. The door appears to be original, with four ledges and saltire braces butt-notched into the ledges in the same manner as found in the chancel of Chipping Ongar Church. The boards are V-edged, weathered on the outside, and now protected by the 15th-century belfry. The strap hinges bear incised zigzag decoration, a remarkable survival. The northeast and southeast quoins are Roman brick arranged in the manner of Saxon long-and-short work, providing further evidence of Saxo-Norman construction. A diagonal buttress was added at the southwest in the 15th century. The nave roof is similar in construction to the chancel roof, with two plain-chamfered tiebeams, the western of which forms part of a former bell-turret with empty mortices for supporting posts; the structure remains almost complete up to roof level and dates from the late 14th century.

The west belfry is constructed in at least three phases, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, with curved saltire bracing in the second stage and a separate outer frame carrying the weatherboards. Two bells hang within: one is dated 1567, the second is inscribed in Lombardic letters "IN HONORE SANCTE JOHANNES" and probably dates from the 14th century.

The chancel screen has undergone extensive repair since the Royal Commission survey. The south side retains four bays with cinquefoil heads and quatrefoil piercings above, together with three turned shafts; the north side preserves only half of one head and two turned shafts, with the remainder being reproduction. Some 14th and 15th-century glass remains in situ in the northeast window of the nave, mainly reset in the southwest windows of the chancel and nave.

The church contains several monuments and memorials. On the east wall of the chancel is a marble tablet to George Kindleton, Rector (1667), surmounted by a cornice and segmental pediment containing a flaming vase, with inscription in an oval panel with laurel wreath and cherub's head. The south wall of the chancel holds a marble tablet to Mrs Ann Broughton (1801) and a slab to William Rawlius and Ann Rawlins his sister (1703). The south wall of the nave bears a white marble monument to William Cole (1729) with a crest above five named children. The west end contains floor slabs of black marble with achievements of arms for William Cole (1729), Mrs Ann Martyn (1758) and Henry Cole (1760). On the north wall of the chancel, the Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments and Creed are painted in gilt letters on four arched panels within a rectangular wooden frame, with the surrounds painted in imitation of marble, dating from the early 18th century. Outside against the south wall of the nave stands a tomb-chest to William Cole (1716) with a gadrooned slab, carved cherubs and bones on the front, mounted on three stone steps.