Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Rushden

This parish church has mid-14th-century origins with an early 15th-century tower, subsequently altered in the late 15th century. The structure was substantially restored with the chancel and south porch rebuilt in 1849, and the interior refitted with the roof restored between 1906 and 1908.

The building is constructed of flint rubble with cement render, stone and red brick dressings, and a yellow stock brick chancel. The nave has a lead roof while the chancel is covered in slate.

The church comprises an unaisled four-bay nave with a south porch, a shorter, lower and narrower chancel, and a west tower.

The south side of the nave features a 14th-century two-centred entrance arch with triple mouldings and shafted jambs, the right jamb having a foliate carved capital. A similar outer arch serves the 19th-century porch, which has a coped gable parapet with kneelers. Two restored late 15th-century windows on the south wall display cinquefoiled lights with traceried four-centred arched heads and hood moulds. Short two-stage angle buttresses appear at the west corner and one buttress to the east. The east end of the nave has a stone plinth and a coped parapet to a shallow pitched roof, with traces of a sundial visible on the quoin. The line of an earlier steeper roof is evident on the east wall of the tower.

The north side of the nave has a large restored late 15th-century window of three cinquefoiled lights with a four-centred arched head. A blocked 14th-century entrance with a pointed arch and double chamfered moulding with moulded caps to the jambs is also visible. Taller two-stage buttresses angled to the west support this elevation.

The unbuttressed three-stage west tower, square in plan and slightly narrower than the nave, features a moulded plinth and stone quoins with brick in the belfry. A restored 15th-century west window contains two lights with trefoiled heads and an upper hexafoil within a pointed arch. String courses mark the upper stages, and a slit opening appears in the second stage to the south. Four louvred lancets light the belfry. The tower is topped by an embattled parapet.

The chancel retains a 14th-century plinth on the south side, with the outline of a former door visible to the west of the present entrance. The south elevation contains an entrance with flanking two-light arched windows, all set in rendered surrounds with dentilled brick eaves. The east end is dominated by a large four-light window in a broad pointed arch, flanked by angle buttresses with kneelers to the shallow coped parapet. Two similar two-light windows appear on the north side.

Interior details include a 15th-century chancel arch with two-centred profile and wave and casement mouldings, continuous on the jambs with respond caps. The earlier 15th-century tower arch is pointed with triple chamfering and chamfered respond piers with caps and bases. The nave roof retains 15th-century moulded wall plates, tie beams, purlins, ridge plate and principals. Arched braces display pierced trefoils in the spandrels, while carved figure corbels represent grotesques, angels and figures in 15th-century dress. Rood stairs are present in the nave south wall.

The nave east wall to the north of the chancel arch contains a 15th-century niche for a statue, featuring a four-centred cusped arched head with foliate stops, a moulded square-headed outer surround, and a frieze above with foiled and cusped panels.

A 14th-century piscina, reset in the chancel south wall at the east end, has a cusped head to a moulded pointed arch. The 15th-century font, positioned in the tower arch, features an octagonal base with vertical roll mouldings at the angles and a larger octagonal bowl decorated with outer Tudor flower and central quatrefoil friezes; it is fitted with a 17th-century cover.

Early 18th-century communion rails with diagonally set slim vase balusters and a moulded handrail stand before a 17th-century communion table with turned legs. Royal Arms of George III are displayed over the south entrance. Credo, Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments panels have been removed to the tower.

A monument on the nave south wall commemorates Sir A. Meetkerke, Flemish ambassador to Queen Elizabeth I, who died in 1591. Originally from St Botolph's, Aldersgate, it was moved here in 1754 and comprises a marble epitaph within a moulded frame bearing arms. An early 19th-century monument to the Meetkerke Family by J. Bacon is also present.