Church Of St Mary

TL 2639 ASHWELL MILL STREET (East side) Ashwell 8/46 Church of 27.5.68 St. Mary GV I

Parish Church. C14 (completed 1381). C15 N porch and aisle windows. Large building with exceptionally big W tower. Clunch. Flint rubble. Some red brick. Low pitched slate roofs behind parapets. 4-stage W tower has deeply projecting stepped angle buttresses. Leaded spike with crenellated octagonal base. Lowest stage has 4-light Decorated-style traceried window; belfry stage has paired pointed arches with traceried panels. N and S aisles have 3-light traceried windows; hood moulds; cinquefoiled lights. Chancel with 3-light restored C14 windows. N porch is single storey. Original door arch and windows. 2-storey S porch has C19 restored gabled front. Lierne vault with naturalistic foliage bosses. Internally, the nave is 5 bays. Composite piers illustrating stylistic progression: E 3 with rounded piers, W 2 with canted piers. Tall W arch with canted piers; walls either side with 2 tall traceried panels. C15 aisle roofs, the N one largely restored. Chancel has good mid-C14 sedilia: 4 cinquefoiled arches with crocketed ogee gables. Fittings: hexagonal wooden pulpit dated 1627; C15 traceried wooden screen to Lady Chapel in E bay of S aisle; C19 replica font on early octagonal base; C15 benches near Chancel. On N wall of W tower are remarkable C14 graffiti: an inscription recording survival of citizens of Ashwell during great plague and a drawing of Old St. Paul's Cathedral, London. (Pevsner (1977)).

Listing NGR: TL2671039779