Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Kings Walden

Parish church with origins in the 12th and 13th centuries. The church comprises a square-ended chancel, north vestry, three-bay nave with aisles, south porch, and large west tower.

The earliest fabric dates to the 12th to 13th centuries, evidenced by the early 13th-century nave arcades. The late 14th century saw construction of the west tower, and the 15th century brought a clearstorey. An early 17th-century brick mortuary chapel for the Hale family was built to the northeast, later converted to serve as the vestry.

The building was substantially restored in 1868 by Eden Nesfield in partnership with Norman Shaw. This campaign included a new south porch, refacing of the nave, chancel and aisles, and part rebuilding of the chancel and aisles. A new oak chancel roof was added in 1909.

The exterior is principally of flint rubble with coursed knapped flint facing and deep ashlar parapets on all elevations except the tower and vestry, with stone dressings throughout. The tower retains remains of plaster facing and Totternhoe stone dressings, with several SPAB-type tile repairs to the stonework. The south porch is arcaded in oak, built on a flint and stone plinth. The vestry is constructed in English bond brickwork with oak window tracery. Steep old red tile roofs cover the chancel, south porch, and vestry; the remainder of the building has low-pitched roofs behind crenellated parapets, which are plain to the aisles.

The chancel features a high open timber roof with embattled collar beams and a patterned floor of coloured and encaustic tiles with several stone steps to the sacristy. A brass inscription commemorates Sibbill Barber, died 1614. A 13th-century double piscina is positioned to the southeast with a lancet window above. An elaborate 13th-century small south doorway has external jamb shafts and ironwork decoration to a plank door. The east window is a three-light traceried window with stained glass by Kempe from 1901; a similar window is set into the south wall. A stone relief reredos, carved oak ciborium in an arched recess to the north of the altar, and a polychrome organ case with ironwork communion rail date from Nesfield's restoration, incorporating carved work by James Forsyth. A carved serpent by the vestry door derives from the Hall family crest. An alabaster wall monument commemorates Timothy Sheppard, died 1613.

An early 14th-century chancel arch of two chamfered orders features half-octagonal responds with moulded caps. A 15th-century Perpendicular painted wooden screen with ogee traceried upper panels and cresting closes the chancel.

The three-bay nave has a plain open timber roof with king-posts, tie-beams, wallposts, and two large 15th-century stone corbels to the east truss. A narrow rood-loft doorway is positioned high up at the northeast. The three-bay north and south arcades have two chamfered orders with short circular pillars and Transitional scallop, waterleaf, and trefoil capitals. Three three-light clearstorey windows are set into each side.

The narrow north aisle has an open timber roof with some timbers dating to the 15th century. A three-light pointed north window and a single-light trefoil west window are present, together with a 14th-century pointed doorway and an image bracket to the north of the east window. A square-headed piscina is positioned at the northeast; the floor level of this aisle appears to have been lowered. Wall monuments commemorate Roland Hale, died 1688, and Richard Hale, 1689.

The slightly wider south aisle extends somewhat to the east, overlapping the chancel. A blocked north communicating door and a wall locker with a door rebate are visible to the left. A cinquefoil 14th-century piscina is positioned opposite in the south wall. The south aisle has a 15th-century open timber roof and 15th-century three-light windows at the east and south, with two-light windows at the southwest. The southeast window contains stained glass and an inscribed stone tablet of 1867 by William Morris depicting three archangels, executed without influence from Burne-Jones. The south doorway is 15th-century, of two moulded orders with a four-centred arched head under a square head with quarterfoil spandrels, deep hollows, and slender attached shafts with small angels below the capitals. The head-stops have been recut; a 19th-century single-leaf plank door features elaborate wrought iron decorative hinge plates.

The gabled south porch has an arched entrance, cusped bargeboards, a plaster-vaulted interior, and chip-carved roundels on corner posts, one bearing a chrysanthemum motif, repeated on the rainwater heads.

The massive west tower is of three stages marked by chamfered stone bands and stepped corner buttresses. A projecting polygonal stair turret at the southeast is carried higher than the parapet. Two-light bell-openings are set into each face with quatrefoils in pointed heads. A small single-light window lights the middle stage. A two-light 14th-century west window and a pointed west door with old oak door are present. The tower arch to the nave is 14th-century, of two chamfered orders and two-centred, with jamb shafts.

The brick vestry is rectangular with moulded gable parapets and a plinth. A plat-band is carried up over two depressed pointed segmental arched north window openings as a deep drip. Oak mullions to three-light windows, formerly painted as stone, contain old leaded lattice glazing fixed to ferromenta. More elaborate wooden tracery to the interior may have been added. A pointed low doorway with steps descends into a vault. A similar east window is present.