Church Of St Mary (C Of E)

Church of St Mary

A Grade I listed parish church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Pirton, standing within the inner bailey of an extensive motte and bailey earthwork castle at the centre of the village.

The church was originally built in the early 12th century as a cruciform structure with a crossing tower. The transepts were destroyed by successive collapses of the tower in the 13th century. Significant alterations followed: the south porch, numerous windows, buttresses, chancel roof and fittings date to the 14th century; the nave was heightened with a new roof and windows in the 15th century. A flat ceiling was inserted in the chancel with "W 1697 D" carved on the soffit of the cross-beam. The interior was re-ordered in 1839.

The church underwent major restoration in stages by the architect John Loughborough Pearson (1817–1898), commissioned by the Reverend Ralph Lindsay Loughborough following Pearson's report of 1851. In 1876–7, the tower was carefully rebuilt from the foundations with a pointed arch to the south for a future transept. In 1882–3, the nave was restored with a new steep roof, parapets, furnishings and finishes. The south transept was built as a vestry between 1907 and 1914, partly with voluntary labour as a memorial to Reverend Loughborough, supervised by F.L. Pearson following plans by his father. The chancel was restored in 1948 with removal of the flat ceiling and restoration of the pointed head to the east window, following damage by flying bomb in 1944.

The structure comprises a central crenelated tower, short square-ended chancel, aiseless wide nave, two-storey south porch, and large south transept used as vestry. The nave is built of coursed limestone rubble with freestone dressings and ashlar parapets. The south porch and added buttresses employ contrasting coursed flint of the 14th century, also with limestone dressings. The tower, south transept, and most of the chancel are of irregular uncoursed clunch rubble, while the east part of the chancel is coursed limestone rubble. The chancel and transept have steep red tile roofs; the nave has a lead roof. The tower has a lead roof with spike and vane. Creasing on the west side of the tower marks where a more steeply pitched nave roof was reinstated by Pearson.

The chancel rises three steps from the crosswing and contains a two-bay crown-post open timber roof carried on a raised tie-beam offset to the east with wallposts and curved braces. A bell-shaped corbel at the east end supports the post to the collar-purlin. A brace-only configuration extends to the purlin. The trussed rafters of the roof may pre-date the supporting structure, which was itself reset at a higher level and dated "1697". A 12th-century roll moulded string course runs across the east wall below the windows.

On the north side, a single window is a two-light insertion of the late 14th century into an older and higher opening with a round-headed inner arch. An early 14th-century double piscina with trefoil heads and a chamfered pier between occupies the rear east end of the south wall. A two-light early 15th-century pointed window above displays cinquefoil lights and stained glass of angels. A wide three-light southwest window of the late 15th century has a square head and cinquefoil lights. Adjoining to the east is a pointed priest's door with a segmental rear arch and a two-centred outer arch with indication of a niche over. A heavy 19th-century carved wooden reredos with pinnacles now stands at the side of the chancel.

The wide three-light east window was originally of the 14th century with a pointed head and wave-moulded jambs, but was altered in the 17th century to a square-headed window by blocking the head and introducing depressed three-centred arched heads to the lights with reserved chamfered mullions. The pointed head was reinstated in 1948 with two vertical chamfered mullions.

The crossing tower has early 12th-century arches to the east and west, each of two square orders in massive round arches with simple chamfered imposts and plinths. Some voussoirs are decorated in chip-carved ornament. A beamed ceiling rests on billet moulded stone corbels. A wide pointed south arch of three chamfered orders supports the organ beneath. An external pointed doorway to the north gives access to a stair in the northwest corner leading to the upper parts of the tower. A two-light pointed bell opening with tracery appears on the east, north and south sides, with a square-headed loop on the west. The bell frame is dated "1642".

The south transept contains a brass memorial tablet beside the door in the west wall. A wide three-light pointed south window displays trefoil lights under ogee tracery in the head. A scissor-braced rafter roof in softwood covers the space.

The unusually wide and lofty nave spans four bays and contains a 19th-century open timber roof carried on medieval stone corbels carved with heads. The roof features a ridge beam and two butt-purlins carried on trusses with curved braces to moulded cambered tie-beams, arched braces to collars above, and quatrefoil tracery to side panels next the queen-struts. Round-headed blocked windows of the 12th century were recorded in the middle of the north and south walls (RCHM 1911). A framed copy of a wall painting found on the west wall in 1883 survives, though the original has faded.

In the north wall, the west window is a pointed 14th-century two-light window with Decorated tracery and fragments of 14th-century stained glass in the head. The east window of three lights has trefoil heads and late 15th-century Perpendicular tracery under a depressed four-centred head; its lower part is blocked. A 14th-century north doorway is blocked on the inside but retains its original plank door and chamfered two-centred outer arch.

The south wall displays a corresponding three-light 15th-century Perpendicular window at its east end with a moulded rear arch, and a two-light Decorated window further to the west with trefoil lights and quatrefoil in the head. A three-centred hollow moulded rear arch frames the south door. To the west of the south door is a pointed rebated doorway with a sill at two metres height, providing access to a winding stair in the wall leading to the upper floor of the porch.

The west end has a tall three-light 14th-century Decorated window with cinquefoil ogee heads to the lights and tracery in the pointed head, moulded rear arch, jamb stops, and label. A wall monument to Jane Docwra, died 1645, incorporates a slab carved with an epitaph she composed. The monument features a classical clunch frame with side scrolls and a broken segmental pediment bearing two shields of arms.

A Caen stone font on a Portland stone base of 1883 has a battered square bowl with corner shafts breaking into knobbly foliage, a fat octagonal shaft, and four stumpy columns on a square chamfered base. An octagonal oak pulpit also by Pearson is carved with a cornice and panels.

The former two-storey south porch gives access to an early 14th-century south door with an original plank door and two-centred head with continuously moulded jambs and stops. A pointed entrance arch of two chamfered orders dies into the jambs and a recess outside. The floor to the upper chamber has been removed, revealing a two-bay open timber roof with a ridge beam and cranked central tie-beam. A pointed doorway on the north wall has pyramid jamb stops. Deep splays frame slot windows in the side walls of the upper part, and a two-light trefoil cusped front window appears on the facade. A rebated wall cupboard occupies the west wall. Tile paving and a stone bench on the west side, partly cut away for a former stair to a west balcony, complete the porch interior.