Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

A parish church on Church Lane in Stapleford, this building originates from the mid-12th century but underwent substantial medieval alterations followed by extensive restoration and enlargement in 1874 at the expense of Abel Smith of Woodhall Park. The church is constructed of flint rubble, cement rendered with stone dressings, and stock brick buttresses. The tower features a weatherboarded stage rising to a leaded timber spire, and the roofs are tiled throughout.

The church originally comprised a three-bay nave with a narrower and shorter chancel. During the 19th century it was substantially expanded: the nave was lengthened by one bay, a south vestry was added, a north transept was constructed, a porch was built, and a tower was erected.

The chancel's east end displays a 19th-century three-light window with rectilinear tracery, a moulded pointed arch, and hood mould with mask stops. Two-stage diagonal buttresses with bargeboards flank this end. The north wall of the chancel retains a restored 13th-century lancet window alongside a 19th-century Gothic panelled door with hood mould. The nave has bargeboards to a taller east gable.

The north transept is distinguished by a gable-end two-light window with traceried head and four-centred arch with hood mould. Above this sits a quatrefoil bearing the date 1874. Two-stage diagonal buttresses with plinth and bargeboards frame the exterior, while an east return contains a Gothic panelled door with hood mould. Projecting from the nave's angle with the transept is a 19th-century entrance porch surmounted by the tower.

Within the porch is early knapped flint walling with a 12th-century round-arched door surround of two orders. The inner colonnettes feature foliate capitals and moulded bases, with triple horizontal zigzag patterning on the arch. The outer voussoirs display vertical zigzag decoration. The outer porch entrance has a pointed arch with moulded hood mould. To the left, steps lead up a plank door to a stair turret with an upper slit opening. To the right stands a three-stage diagonal buttress. A lancet in the west return opens to the weatherboarded upper stage of the tower, which has a leaded light to the north and broaches to an octagonal head with timber belfry. The octagonal spire features zigzag patterning and a weathervane finial.

A two-stage buttress marks the original west end of the nave, where a 19th-century square-headed light occupies the added bay. The west end itself has a 19th-century three-light window with rectilinear tracery and an upper cusped diamond motif, flanked by three-stage diagonal buttresses, plinth, and bargeboards.

The south side of the nave contains three windows. The centre opening is a 19th-century single light that replaces a 12th-century door, of which the lower jambs remain visible alongside a mass dial. Towards the east end stands a 15th-century window of two cinquefoiled lights with curvilinear tracery and a four-centred arched head with hood mould; this design was copied in the 19th century towards the west end. Two-stage buttresses flank the original west end and stand to the right of the door. A slight wall thickening indicates rood stairs, marked by a slit light at the east end of the nave's south wall and a two-stage buttress. The large south vestry extending from the chancel has a gable-end three-light traceried window, angle buttresses, and lancets in the returns (blocked to the east). An east door features a four-centred arched head with square hood mould.

The interior reveals a 16th-century two-centred chancel arch with double chamfering and moulded caps at the springings. A 13th-century lancet in a deep embrasure runs from the chancel's south wall to the vestry. The opening from nave to north transept is a 19th-century double-chamfered pointed arch. At the nave's southeast angle, a chamfered four-centred arched-headed opening leads to the rood stairs, with an upper opening featuring chamfered jambs.

The nave roof is a 15th- or early 16th-century crown post roof, extended westward in the 19th century. It features octagonal crown posts with caps and bases, four-way braces, stop-chamfered tie beams, and ovolo-moulded wall plates. A late 18th-century vase-baluster font with swags on the bowl survives, and an early 18th-century stone memorial to Reverend D Williams (removed from the churchyard to the nave's south wall) displays arms in relief. The nave's southeast window contains 15th-century glass fragments at its head, while other windows retain early 20th-century glass. The sanctuary features 1919 panelling and communion rails.