Church Of St Mary (Church Of England)

Church of St Mary, Puttenham

This is a parish church of outstanding architectural interest, serving a shrunken medieval village. The building comprises an early 14th-century nave and aisles, an early 15th-century west tower with a lower square-ended chancel, and a gabled south porch. The chancel was largely rebuilt in 1851 for Reverend Thomas Holme while retaining older features. The south porch was rebuilt in 1869 and again during a general restoration of 1888–89 by the architects Carpenter & Ingelow, commissioned by Reverend Robert Merrick. During this restoration the chancel floor was raised and relaid, roofs were repaired, and the tower parapets and turret-top were rebuilt. Structural repairs and restoration were undertaken in 1934–35 by Sir Albert Richardson, and the west window was restored in 1971.

The walls are constructed of uncoursed limestone with knapped flints set in wide joints on the aisles; the north clearstorey has closer jointing without flints. The tower is built of large coursed blocks of Ketton stone with regular squares of knapped flint creating a chequered effect. The chancel is faced in uncoursed knapped flint over a stone base course with stuccoed buttresses lined as ashlar. The south clearstorey is faced in grey knapped flint. The south porch is half-timbered on high stone and flint side-walls. The chancel and porch have steep red tiled roofs, while the remainder has low-pitched metal roofs.

The chancel has buttresses in the middle of the north and south walls and diagonal buttresses at the east end. The interior is spartan, with a single 3-light pointed east window. The south wall contains a 15th-century pointed piscina with hollow chamfered mouldings in two orders; the north wall has a roundheaded trefoil-cusped piscina. Stone slabs with brass indents stand within 18th-century turned altar rails. Six roundels of 15th-century encaustic tiles are set against the north wall. A 17th-century heavy oak pew and a reading desk with 15th-century poppy-head ends are present. The roof is a softwood arch-braced collar roof of six short bays. A plate dated 1851 hangs over the pointed south door, and a small painted 18th-century framed board with a text from Psalms is on the north wall. The floor is of encaustic tiles laid in 1889.

The nave comprises three bays with tall three-bay arcades of slightly different dates, both of early 14th-century construction. These feature slender octagonal piers with moulded bases, fine moulded capitals, and pointed arches of two orders. The south arcade has plain chamfered arches, while the north arcade is wave-moulded. The east end of the south arcade is carried on a head corbel. The 14th-century chancel arch, with half-octagonal responds, follows a similar design to the south arcade. The clearstorey contains simple 2-light Perpendicular windows in the middle and eastern bays only.

The most distinguished feature of the church is the unusually rich and elaborate early 15th-century open timber roof of three bays. It features heavy roll-moulded rafters, ridge, purlins, principals, and sub-principals, with cambered tie-beams. Large standing figures serve as wall-posts on small stone corbels to the tie-beams, and half life-size figures stand under the wall ends of the sub-principals. Large carved bosses mark the intersections. The four standing figures on each side depict saints, each standing on birds with outstretched necks. The smaller figures on the sub-principals wear diadems and hold blank shields. Two bosses bear the arms of Zouch and Wykeham; another carries a rebus for Hutton. The contemporary five-bay roof of the south aisle is similar in style, though said to have been renewed. Pierced medieval carved wooden cresting with vine scroll pattern, possibly from a rood screen, has been fixed to the south aisle wallplate.

The nave contains several massive oak benches with moulded rails of 17th-century or earlier date. An early 17th-century hexagonal oak panelled pulpit has carved panels depicting a lozenge below and a coiled scaly serpent above on each side. A similar panel with serpent is incorporated in the 19th-century wooden lectern. The stone font has a plain circular bowl, stem, and base, recut in the medieval period, and a 17th-century wooden cover. A painted panel of the Royal Arms of George III, dated 1760, hangs over the chancel arch, with a hatchment on the west wall. Two 18th-century framed boards with the Commandments flank a 15th-century oak door with 17th-century moulded battens on the outside, creating a panelled appearance.

Simple 2-light Perpendicular east windows open to the aisles. The north aisle contains two late 15th-century windows of different designs: one of three cinquefoil lights under a segmental head, the other of two lights with pierced spandrels under a 4-centred arched head. The latter contains a composite roundel of medieval stained glass. A similar 3-light window appears in the east part of the south aisle, with a 2-light Perpendicular window in the west part. A 19th-century small painted organ stands in the middle bay of the north aisle. A 4-centred arched piscina in the south aisle has chamfered jambs and a pyramid stop. A crested deal screen dating to around 1889 stands in the tower arch, with a pointed deal door and ornamental hinge plates. A painting of James Stevens, who died in 1911 aged 103, hangs in the south aisle.

The low, massive west tower has a projecting rectangular south-east stair turret rising higher with a wind-vane. The east face of the turret continues the east face of the tower, giving an appearance of greater breadth. The tower features a chamfered plinth, a chamfered string course, and embattled parapets. Belfry openings on each face contain two trefoil lights with a quatrefoil in the head (restored). Below is a late 15th-century 3-light west window with cinquefoil lights (restored), and a late 15th-century pointed west doorway (patched). The vestry in the tower base contains two 18th-century painted framed panels with the Lord's Prayer and Creed, and a framed plan of 1883 signed by the architects Carpenter & Ingelow.