Parish Church Of St Mary (Church Of England)

Parish Church of St Mary

This is a small medieval parish church of outstanding architectural and historical interest, situated on the north side of The Street in Aspelden.

The church comprises a chancel, nave, west tower, south aisle, southeast chapel, and south porch. The chancel dates from the late 12th century but was substantially rebuilt and lengthened eastwards during the 13th century. The late 12th-century nave stands on a different alignment from the chancel. The south aisle was added around 1340. The west tower dates from around 1390. Major works followed in the late 15th century, when a southeast chapel was added, the south aisle was altered, the nave was heightened, and new roofs were installed to the nave and aisle. The east wall of the nave was removed at this time to accommodate a rood screen. The south porch was built around 1525 for the widow of Sir Robert Clifford. The southeast chapel was altered in 1622 for Ralph Freman of Aspenden Hall. The church was comprehensively restored in 1873 by Sir Arthur Blomfield, who added a steep red-tiled pitched roof over the old roof of the southeast chapel and introduced three gabled dormers on the south elevation with quatrefoil clear-storey lights to the nave.

The building is constructed of plastered flint rubble with stone dressings. It has steep pitched old red-tile roofs, though the south aisle features a copper lean-to roof and the tower has a truncated lead spike. The southeast chapel has tile-hung gables.

The chancel contains a deeply splayed small round-headed 12th-century window in the north wall, two early 13th-century lancets flanking the altar, and an early 16th-century low-side window at the northwest, which has grotesque external detailing. A four-light 15th-century east window with perpendicular tracery lights the chancel. Inside, the chancel features a boarded wagon ceiling with moulded battens. The most significant interior feature is an elaborate Easter Sepulchre to the north of the altar, decorated with quatrefoil spandrels between a crocketed ogee arch and embattled cresting with panelled buttresses. An eight-foiled piscina sits to the south of the altar, and the floor is laid with polychrome encaustic tiles.

An arcade of two round arches of two splayed orders opens into the southeast chapel. The octagonal piers and arch soffits are decorated with sunk panels of arabesque ornament with bosses. The central spandrel on the south side bears the date 1622 with the Freeman arms. The chapel is enclosed by a contemporary panelled oak screen with an open-arcaded top, which returns to form box-pews on each side of a central aisle. The chapel has a 15th-century moulded roof, a three-light cinquefoil 15th-century east window beneath a low elliptical head, and a two-light south window altered in the 17th century. A blocked entrance to the rood stair is said to lie in the northwest corner behind the organ.

The nave features a steep pitched 15th-century open timber roof of three bays with moulded members. Queen-post trusses supported by curved braces form wall posts to cambered tie-beams, with arched braces rising from the queen-posts to the collars. Three butt-purlins run to each slope, and two ranges of arched wind-bracing provide lateral stability. The north wall contains two 15th-century three-light windows flanking a blocked 15th-century north door with continuously moulded opening. An ogee-arched niche under a square head is positioned in the east jamb of the window east of the door. The south arcade comprises three bays and dates from the mid-14th century, with octagonal piers, moulded capitals, and two-centred arches. The late 14th-century tower arch has two moulded orders with semi-octagonal jamb shafts, and capitals extended eastwards as moulded bands. Three quatrefoil 19th-century openings below the moulded wall plate and gabled dormers form the south clear-storey.

The south aisle has two-light late 15th-century windows to the south and west, with a south door featuring armorial shields in cusped spandrels between a two-centred arch and square outer order. The aisle has a sloping moulded 15th-century lean-to roof.

The west tower is a three-stage structure dating from around 1390, embattled with pointed bell-chamber openings on each face. It contains a three-light west window and a small 19th-century west door below.

The south porch, built around 1525, has a two-centred arched entrance with heraldic spandrels. It features two-light side windows and a low-pitched open timber roof with moulding to the ridge, wall plates, and central principal. The porch contains stained glass by Morris and Company dating from around 1913, depicting the four evangelists.

The late 15th-century font is octagonal with plain cardinal faces but shield-in-quatrefoil ornament on the angled faces. A 17th-century poor box takes the form of a short square oak pillar. A heavy 17th-century oak south door retains its stock lock.

The church contains several important monuments. A canopied altar-tomb in Purbeck (or Bethersden) marble dating from around 1508 commemorates Sir Robert Clifford in the southeast chapel. It features brass-inlay figures and retains some coloured infill at the back under a depressed arch with quatrefoil frieze and top cresting. A brass dating from around 1500 is located on the north wall of the nave. Further monuments include: on the east wall of the chapel, a marble aedicule to Elizabeth Freman (died 1623) with a hatchment panel above, and a marble aedicule on brackets to Ralph Freman (died 1665) with black tablet, Ionic flanking columns, full entablature, and swans-neck pediment with central urn; on the south wall of the aisle, a wall monument erected in 1702 incorporating twin frontal bronze busts of brothers Sir Ralph Freman (died 1634) and William (died 1623), these busts having been saved from St Martin Cornhill after the Great Fire of London, and a neo-classical wall monument to John Boldero (died 1789) of inlaid marble with an urn. Externally, the south wall of the chapel bears a monument to the parents of an occupant (died 1645 and 1665) by Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury. A tablet on the west wall of the aisle commemorates Mary Cator, who left money for a free school.

This small medieval church remains little altered and is of outstanding interest for its southeast chapel, roofs, Easter Sepulchre, and fine monuments.