Parish Church Of St Mary The Virgin (Church Of England)

Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin

This Grade I listed parish church in Walkern stands in a hollow by a ford over the River Beane. It is a building of outstanding architectural and historical interest, spanning from the Anglo-Saxon period through to the 19th century.

The church comprises a tall Saxon nave (proportioned 1:2), an early 12th-century south aisle, an early 13th-century chancel and north aisle, an early 14th-century west tower, an early 15th-century two-storey south porch, and later additions including a late 15th-century clerestory and aisle windows. The chancel was restored in 1878, and a northeast chapel was added in 1882 by architect Hugh Roumieu Gough. A 19th-century southeast vestry was constructed at the same time as the 1882 restoration and re-seating. Rainwater heads are dated 1789.

The building is constructed of flint rubble with dressings of Barnack stone and clunch. The chancel and flanking chapel and vestry have steep roofs in old red tile, while the flatter-pitched roofs of the western parts are concealed by crenellated parapets. The tower is topped with a pyramid slate roof and a tall slender finial.

The three-stage west tower is unbuttressed, and the two-storey south porch stands to the south. The chancel is flanked by a lean-to northeast chapel and southeast vestry.

The tall Saxon nave contains a sculptured Rood in situ, which formerly stood externally over the south door, depicting a robed Christ. The south wall is pierced by two plain round-arched openings from the early 12th century, featuring multiple cable-moulded impost on the east jamb of the west archway, possibly reused from a Saxon south door. The south aisle has a Norman south door with recessed order and colonettes, and a blocked Norman window to the west.

The north arcade of the nave into the narrower north aisle dates to the 13th century and consists of three bays. Octagonal columns with moulded caps and bases support two-centred arches of two chamfered orders. A late 14th-century north doorway features two moulded orders, with four carved heads serving as roof corbels. Late 15th-century windows include three three-light windows in the north wall and a two-light window in the west wall.

The south aisle contains a four-light 15th-century south window and a similar three-light window to the west. It features a lower door and a winding rood stair at the northeast. A small 15th-century door to the west of the south door leads by a winding stair to the parvise over the porch. The south aisle houses a late 14th-century clunch octagonal font with shafts worked on alternate facets of the bowl, and an arched wall recess containing a fine Purbeck marble effigy of a knight with crossed legs, mail hauberk, coif, chausses, long surcoat, shield, sword and closed flat-topped helm (said to be William de Lanvalei, died 1211, or his son of the same name, died 1212).

The medieval roofs over the nave and aisles are contemporary, each of three bays with moulded principals, sub-principals, purlins and ridge. Carved bosses ornament the intersections, and provision was made for angel figures with displayed wings to be fixed on the lower part of each sub-principal. Deep cambered tie beams and arched knee-braces extend from wall posts in the nave and north aisle.

A tall double-chamfered arch leads into the tower, with recessed reticulated tracery in a three-light west window. Late 15th-century bell-chamber openings are set above.

The wide 13th-century chancel arch has two chamfered orders and displays a 15th-century oak screen, panelled below with two open traceried bays either side of the central opening. The chancel features a trefoil-headed early 13th-century piscina with dog-tooth ornament and shafted jambs, triple 13th-century stepped sedilia, a 19th-century triple lancet east window with shafted rerearch, and a two-bay 19th-century north arcade in elementary plate-tracery into the northeast chapel. The stepped sanctuary displays patterning of encaustic and glazed coloured tiling on the floor. A slim 16th-century octagonal oak pulpit stands within the chancel. Royal arms hang over the tower arch, and consecration crosses appear on the east jamb of the west arch of the south arcade and in knapped flint externally on each face of the tower base.

The church contains numerous brasses and wall monuments. Brasses include those to Edward Humberston and wife (1583) in front of the tower arch, a palimpsest of John Lovekyn (1368); to a 15th-century man and wife, and an inscription to William Bramfielde (1596), both in the floor of the north aisle; to Edward Chapman (1621) and wife (1636) on the south wall of the chancel; and three inscriptions in the vestry. Wall monuments include one to Gyles Humberston (1627) on the south wall of the nave, an aedicule with Corinthian pilasters, broken pediment, mantled achievement, and figures of man and wife kneeling facing over a prayer desk; one to David Gorsuch (1638) and wife on the south wall of the chancel, a similar aedicule with two arches and kneeling figures; and one to Philip Adams (1803) on the north wall of the north aisle, a tablet surmounted by a draped urn, referring to a tomb in the churchyard.

The church is of outstanding interest on account of its early origins, varied dates of development, the Saxon Rood sculpture, and the early 13th-century knight's effigy in the south aisle.