Church Of St Mary The Virgin (Church Of England)

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Great Wymondley

Parish church of the Church of England, Grade I listed. The building comprises an early 12th-century nave and chancel, with a 15th-century raised nave roof and west tower. It was substantially restored in 1883–4 by architect Joseph Clarke, who added a north vestry and rebuilt the south porch. A further restoration took place in 1977.

Construction and Materials

The church is built of flint rubble with the nave faced in coursed flints and pebbles incorporating a few Roman tiles. Some herringbone work in coursed pebbles is visible around the apse. The vestry is constructed of uncoursed knapped flints. Limestone dressings throughout, with Ancaster stone used in the 19th-century restoration. The roofs are steeply pitched red tiles: half-conical with gablet over the apse, pyramidal over the tower (topped with weathercock and vane), and low-pitched metal over the nave behind the parapet.

Plan and External Features

This small church features an unusual apsidal chancel—one of only three remaining in the county—with an unaisled crenelated nave, tall crenelated west tower, gabled south porch, and small lean-to vestry against the north wall of the nave, accessed by the original north door.

The Chancel

The chancel measures 20 feet by 16 feet with a semi-circular apsidal plan. Inside, a boarded wagon ceiling with rib at the start of the hemicycle of the apse frames encaustic patterns in red tiled flooring, with mosaic in carpet pattern around the altar. The east window is a 14th-century traceried 3-light with square head. The north wall contains a single 13th-century lancet window fitted into a 12th-century splayed opening with round-headed rear arch. The south wall has a 13th-century lancet and low-side window.

The chancel arch is early 12th-century with a semi-circular head, heavy roll-moulding, engaged shafts, capitals with primitive ovolo ornament on the west angles, chamfered and recessed bead-ornamented imposts, scallop bases and chamfered plinths. A 13th-century piscina with angle shafts and square head occupies the south wall, and an aumbry with door rebate is set in the southwest corner. A wooden altar rail sits on iron standards.

The Nave

The tall five-bay nave has external stringcourses marking where walls were heightened for the late 15th-century roof. Two tall pointed south windows of three stepped lights pierce the south wall. The open timber roof has a plain ridge and one purlin to each slope, moulded wallplates and wallposts rising from stone corbels carved as heads—two appear Romanesque, while two fine heads adorn the north side. Curved braces support moulded tie-beams; these support the purlins directly and the ridge via short king-posts with curved axial braces. A 14th-century 2-light ogee-traceried window occupies the north wall.

The south entrance, dating to circa 1120, is an ornamental Romanesque composition with a heavy roll-moulded round arch, all-over grid of chip-carved ornament to the tympanum and abacus, jambs of 2 orders, and cushion capitals whose angles carry rudely carved faces. The shafts have inverted scallop bases matching the chancel arch. The north doorway, 14th-century, has a segmental rear arch and now gives access to the vestry.

Through the north abutment of the chancel arch is a low 15th-century squint into the chancel. Above it stands a corbel for the former rood loft; the stair remains in the wall thickness on the northeast with narrow pointed doors—the lower rebated for a door, the upper chamfered. A trefoil-headed niche for an image is set in the east wall north of the chancel arch, possibly for a nave altar. A floor slab to Henry Barnewell, died 1638, lies nearby.

A plain stone font, probably 15th-century, has a flared octagonal bowl with chamfered offset to a fat octagonal shaft on hollow-moulded base and octagonal step; it is surmounted by an oak 19th-century cover with vigorous ironwork in Romanesque and Arts and Crafts style. Pews at the west end of the nave date to the 15th or early 16th century and feature buttress pilasters. An incised sundial appears on an external southeast quoin of the nave.

The Tower

The 15th-century tower arch is 4-centred with two moulded orders: the outer exhibits continuous wave moulding, the inner sits on jamb shafts with octagonal caps and bases. The square three-stage west tower displays stringcourses and diagonal buttresses, with a winding stair in the wall of the northwest angle entered by an internal door. The old plank door, with old painted lettering, occupies a narrow pointed opening with continuous moulding. An off-centre 3-light pointed west window features cinquefoil lights and a transom to the centre light. A slot window lights the stage below the bells. Two-light belfry openings on each face of the tower have pointed heads and Y-tracery. Gargoyles surmount each opening in the stringcourse at the base of the crenelated parapet. A pointed west doorway of two moulded orders provides entrance.