Church Of St Mary The Virgin

This exceptional parish church is aligned north-east to south-west and represents one of the finest examples of late medieval church architecture in Essex, with work by two royal master masons. The chancel and crypt date from the late 13th century, while the nave and tower were rebuilt between 1485 and the early 16th century by Simon Clerk and John Wastell. The upper stage of the tower was rebuilt and the spire added in 1831 by Rickman and Hutchinson. William Butterfield carried out restoration work and installed a new east window in 1876, and major repairs were undertaken in the mid-1970s. The walls are constructed from varying materials including ashlar, flint, field stones and ashlar off-cuts, with lead roofs throughout.

Plan and Scale

The church comprises a seven-bay nave with eight-bay north and south aisles, each terminating in two-bay east chapels. There are north and south porches, a three-bay chancel, and a west tower. The scale is impressive, with a refined, tall nave built of clunch (a form of soft limestone).

West Elevation

The west end presents a central tower flanked by the low-pitched gabled ends of the aisles. A plinth with an upper moulded string runs across the elevation and continues around all sides of the church. The tower rises in four stages with set-back buttresses. The first and second stages are built of ashlar. The west doorway has a two-centred arched head within a moulded rectangular surround, with spandrels decorated with quatrefoiled roundels containing a central lozenge leaf motif and trefoiled daggers—a decorative motif repeated with slight variations throughout the building as a standard design. The door itself is 19th-century boarded construction with ironwork. Above the doorway is a three-light window with a two-centred arched head, foiled lights, upper panelled tracery, and a head-stopped label.

The third stage has field stone walling and features a two-light, two-centred arched window with a head-stopped label, with a clock positioned above. The fourth stage contains a three-light, two-centred arched louvred belfry opening with upper panelled tracery in a rectangular frame with a head-stopped label. The parapet is embattled and gridded with quatrefoiled roundels below the crenellations. Corner buttresses are surmounted by crocketed ogee-topped turrets from which paired fliers support the stone octagonal spire. The spire has crocketed arris ribs and gabled louvred lucarnes alternating at two levels, topped with a weathercock.

The west ends of the aisles are built of flint and field stones. The north aisle has a plinth of panelled flint flushwork, angle buttresses with crocketed finials, and an embattled low-pitched gabled parapet. Each aisle end features a two-centred arched five-light window with upper panelled and foiled tracery and splayed sills.

South Elevation

From west to east, the south side begins with the tower, similar to the west elevation but with putlog holes visible on the lower three stages. The ground floor walling is blank and constructed of split flints. The second and third stages are built of field stones and off-cuts, with the second stage also blank. Both the clerestory and side aisle walling are of field stones and embattled, with buttresses topped by crocketed finials at bay intervals.

All the aisle windows are similar in design: rectangular framed with two-centred arched heads, four foiled lights with an upper transom and panelled tracery with Y-bars intersecting. The clerestory windows are framed in pairs as one, with depressed arched heads. Each has three lights with a lower transom and foiled upper panelled tracery.

The two-storeyed south porch extends two bays deep, with a flat embattled parapet and angle buttresses surmounted by octagonal embattled turrets. Both the outer and inner doorways follow the standard decorative style. Inside is a stone fan vault with two large foliate bosses. The outer door was inserted to create a vestry, while the inner door dates from the early 16th century and comprises vertical boards with an upper moulded rail and a wicket door in the west leaf. It retains some original ironwork including half of the internal locking bar (now converted for a padlock), stud nails, and internal lozenge-shaped roves clamping horizontal boards.

The muniment room occupies the upper part of the porch, with a south window of four lights and panelled tracery with seven bars. The ground floor sides of the porch each have two two-light lancet windows, with similar windows above in square framing. The plinth on the east side incorporates a fragment of an Anglo-Saxon cross. The aisle bays to the east have split flint walling below the windows and in the buttresses.

At the east end of the nave clerestory stands an early 16th-century octagonal turret with an ogee crocketed top and scale ornamentation. Below, at the nave-chapel buttress, is a cusped, nodding, ogee-headed niche containing an image of a bishop.

The south chapel has a three-centred arched door with a rectangular label and a 19th-century boarded door. Its windows are similar to those in the aisles but less deep, with flushwork spandrels in the standard style. To the east, a 19th or 20th-century ground floor extension fills the internal angle with the chancel, built of flint walling with a plain parapet featuring an ogee-moulded cornice. The doorway has a four-centred arched head with a label.

The chancel is set back with a diagonal buttress, two clerestory windows, and a side window of three lights with upper panelled tracery.

North Elevation

The north side is similar to the south, but the nave aisle windows have gridded spandrels, and the three western bays of the nave aisle are constructed of chequered knapped flint. The buttresses are similar to those on the south side.

The north porch is single-storeyed and one bay deep, with diagonal buttresses topped by crocketed finials. The doorway has a four-centred arched head within an embattled rectangular frame, with jamb-shafts featuring capitals and bases. Two-light windows flank each side. Inside is a tierceron stone vault with a central boss depicting an angel with a shield. The inner doorway follows the standard style and has an early 16th-century door similar to that in the south porch. An outer 20th-century door was added to create a vestry, as with the south porch. The vault arch cuts across the corners of the inner doorway spandrels, suggesting the porch was an afterthought.

The north clerestory at the east end of the nave has a similar turret to the one on the south side. The north chapel window matches that on the south side with flushwork spandrels. The cornice beneath the parapet features a deep cavetto moulding decorated with animals and human figures. The ninth bay (chapel) doorway has a hollow-moulded two-centred arched head with a label and a 19th-century boarded door. The chancel is similar to that on the south side.

East Elevation

The east elevation presents a low-pitched gabled chancel with the north and south chapels set back, all with embattled parapets. The chancel has diagonal buttresses and a 19th-century east window with a two-centred head, five foiled lights, a lower transom, and upper panelled tracery with quatrefoils. Below is a plaque recording the sealing of the Howard vault in 1860. Through the plinth are two venting loops (one also on the north side) with pierced iron plates and grilles.

The south chapel has angle buttresses with finials and a four-light window with an upper transom, panelled tracery below, and Y-tracery above. A 19th-century ground floor addition stands in front, with two rectangular casement windows.

The north chapel is similar to the south chapel but features a seven-light window in the standard style with two principal mullions dividing the lights 2-3-2. It has a broken embattled transom lifted in the centre, panelled tracery with upper quatrefoiled roundels, and mullions continued down below the window as blind panels.

Interior

The tower has a high arch to the nave with similar interior arches. Vault springers remain at each corner, with a timber floor above. The nave is refined and tall, built of clunch, with a two-centred arched arcade. Paired clerestory windows have mullions carried down as blind panelling to a fleuron-decorated cornice.

The arcades are decorated in the standard style with piers of enriched lozenge section, attached shafts, and an intermediate great casement moulding carried around the arches. The octagonal capitals to the shafts are enriched with lozenge-shaped fleurons. The inner (nave) shafts continue through the high capitals to support the timber roof trusses.

The roof features arch-braced cambered tie-beams with a longitudinal central joist and single side joists. Common joists span the pitches with board infill. All joists are moulded, and each bay has a central decorative boss with angels on either side on the cornice. The tie-beam brace spandrels have pierced roundels.

The rear of the arcades in the side aisles is decorated in the standard style as the nave. The three western bays of the north aisle contain four early 14th-century canopied, foiled, ogee niches in each bay, decorated with figure subjects. Above are piers with spire-form vaulted canopies. Similar vaulted canopies appear on the piers of the south aisle.

The aisle roofs have braced cambered tie-beams with queen-posts to the principal rafters, braced to the apex. Pierced foiled panel tracery links the tie-beams and rafters. The purlins match the nave roof, with all joists moulded and boarded between.

The chancel arch is similar to the nave arcade, with spandrels enriched with all-over quatrefoiled roundels and central lozenge leaf patterns. Rood loft stairs are present on each side.

The choir has a 13th-century arcade of two bays with two-centred double hollow-moulded arches, round undercut capitals, and roll-moulded bases. The roof is similar to the nave but consists of short single bays (matching the clerestory window width). The supporting wall shafts have niches containing figures.

The crypt now comprises two bays and is considerably bricked in below the south porch and aisle. It features two bays of quadripartite vaulting with chamfered ribs, semi-octagonal shafts, and chamfered plinths. The vault webs are constructed of thin bricks, suggesting a 14th-century date rather than the late 13th century as stated in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments inventory.

The muniment room over the south porch has a doorway adjacent to the south porch door with a four-centred arched head and leaf-decorated spandrels. The 16th-century door is made of triangular-sectioned boards with central arrises. The muniment room retains its original 16th-century roof of two bays, with cambered tie-beams and three longitudinal joists all decorated with rolls and hollow chamfers.

Fittings

The church contains a 19th-century altar retable of five gabled niches with paintings of Christ and the Apostles, flanked on each side by two smaller arched recesses containing angels and archangels.

The font dates from around 1500 and is octagonal with sunk cusped panels decorated with flowers and shields. The shaft has sunk foiled panels.

Brass indents are present in the north and south chapels, with several brasses reset into the 14th-century canopied recesses in the north aisle.

In the north chapel is an altar tomb in Purbeck marble with a moulded edge and brass marginal inscription commemorating John Leche, vicar, who died in 1521.

The south chapel contains at its east end an altar tomb of touchstone (a fine-grained black stone) commemorating Thomas, Lord Audley, who died in 1544. This Renaissance work features panelled sides with enriched pilasters and wreathed shields, with a panel at the head displaying the achievement of the Audley arms.

Floor slabs at the west end of the nave and aisles range from the late 17th to early 19th centuries, displaying achievements and shields of arms. The inscriptions showcase a wide range of fashionable calligraphy styles.

Most of the church windows now contain clear diamond-paned glass. Nineteenth-century stained glass appears in the three western bays of the north aisle, the four western bays of the south aisle, the north chapel east window, the choir east window, and the lower west window of the tower. A fragment of early 16th-century glass—a head, probably of a female saint—survives in the south aisle west window.

Historical Context

The rebuilding of the church by royal master masons is linked to the events of 1485, when work temporarily ceased at King's College, Cambridge, and the masons were obliged to undertake lesser projects. The work remained unfinished at John Wastell's death in 1515. The arcade style, clerestory turrets, and south porch fan vault are characteristic elements of Wastell's repertoire and can be compared with his work at King's College Chapel and Great St Mary's Church, also in Cambridge.