Church Of St Mary Magdalene (C Of E)

Church of St Mary Magdalene (C of E)

A parish church of early 13th-century origin, located at Great Offley on Kings Walden Road. The building comprises a nave and aisles with a south porch, and has been substantially altered and extended over several centuries.

The earliest fabric consists of the nave and aisles in early 13th-century flint rubble with stone dressings; the north aisle is roughly plastered. A large south porch in coursed flints with stone dressings features exposed timbers in the gable triangle. The 14th century saw the insertion of windows and doors, followed by late 14th and 15th-century work to the clearstorey and roofs. The west tower was rebuilt in brick in 1800, as recorded on rainwater heads on its east face. The chancel was remodelled both externally and internally in 1751-9 and again in the 1770s for the Salusbury family, with the date '1777' marked on rainwater heads for widow Sarah Salusbury. Major restorations occurred in 1875 and 1904.

The nave and aisles are covered by steep old red tile roofs, while the chancel has a flat roof with a concealed lantern behind its parapet. The chancel itself is a striking cubical mass of Portland stone ashlar with a droved plinth, crenellated parapet, and fat pyramidal crocketed corner pinnacles. The same ashlar faces the east end of the north aisle. A buried boiler house on the north side is covered by York stone slabs. The nave has four-bay arcades to the aisles with octagonal piers bearing moulded bases and stiff-leaf capitals, supporting pointed arches in two chamfered orders with labels terminating in carved stops. Five wooden vertical spreaders at clearstorey level with lead caps are associated with wrought iron tie-bars slung from nave tie-beams. The roof structure is a low-pitched 15th-century open timber design with ridge, two purlins, wall-posts, and heavy knee braces at the east end on broken corbels curved with a head.

The north aisle contains three square-headed 15th-century two-light windows on its north side and a late 14th-century north door. An 18th-century lancet east window features painted glass similar to the chancel's east window. An inscription on the east jamb of the northernmost window records the consecration in 1417 of a side altar. The floor is red tile with black bands. Fifteenth-century buttressed oak pews occupy the west part of the church. Two groups of early 16th-century brasses are present: one commemorates John Saurmel (died 1529) on two slate slabs mounted on the wall, with original slabs remaining in the floor. Painted Royal Arms on canvas dated 1800 hang over the north door. Fragments of 14th-century stained glass survive in the heads of the middle window.

A wall monument on the west wall commemorates William Chamber (died 1728), designed by William Palmer. It features grey marble with a gadrooned base, a cherub's head to the apron, fluted Corinthian pilasters rising higher than a round-arched tablet, with a bellied cartouche and urn on a segmental entablature above.

The south aisle features a 15th-century four-bay arch-braced timber roof with a moulded central purlin and carved corbel heads. It contains three two-light 15th-century south windows and an east window, with stepped external buttresses. A 15th-century south door has a pointed arch with square head externally, ornamented with quatrefoil spandrels and a label. At the east end of the south wall is a 15th-century piscina with a cinquefoil head and shallow pointed arched recess above it. Two 14th-century tiles with reversed lettering lie within, accompanied by a carved inscription dated 1777 stating they were discovered then, 'which proves that King Offa was buried here'.

An elaborate standing monument at the west end of the south aisle, attributed to Edward Stanton or John Nost, commemorates Sir John Spencer (died 1699). It displays a reclining figure in Roman armour and a veiled kneeling woman beneath a tall back in grey marble carved with a pair of putti on clouds holding a crown and palms, with a heraldic achievement and two urns on the top entablature.

To the west of the south door stands a richly carved octagonal 14th-century font with a deep bowl carved in relief on each face with ogee-headed arches displaying varied tracery, some Decorated, some Perpendicular. The square base has an elaborate transition to a short thick octagonal shaft and eight minor shafts with moulded bases; octagonal shafts intersect the moulded base to the bowl. An openwork wooden spire surmounts a flat oak cover of the early 17th century.

The large rectangular south porch has a pointed entrance with roll mouldings in three orders, a brick floor, and side benches. Its clasped-purlin roof spans two bays. The thick walls contain a lancet window on the east side with a rear arch and a trefoil-headed small hollow-chamfered window on the west with a 13th-century inner frame retaining one jamb shaft with base and cap and a slightly pointed arch with roll moulding. A studded plank south door closes the entrance.

The west tower comprises three stages with clasping corner buttresses rising to a string at the sill level of the bell openings. A cornice sits below the crenellated parapet, and a vane surmounts a short spire. Wide stone-framed chamfered bell openings on each face feature Y-tracery and louvres. Similar stone windows on the middle stage on the north, west, and south sides display quatrefoil cusping set diagonally. A lozenge-shaped border frames the clockface above the quatrefoil window on the west side. A chamfered pointed stone surround frames the west door and a window at a higher level on the south side.

The chancel is rectangular externally but contains an apsidal recess within, carried up in a half-dome at the east end and pierced only by its single window. The interior is a lofty rectangular space with plastered walls, a black floor of tomb slabs, a flat coffered ceiling, and a central lantern. It is approached via wide, tall steps through a round-headed 18th-century chancel arch with niches in the deep jambs and plaster panelling on the arch's soffit. The pavement bears scars where an iron screen was removed; this screen now forms a gate to the walled garden at nearby Offley Place. Niches containing busts occupy each end of the side walls, with a deep recess for an organ at the northwest now containing War Memorial tablets. A tall standing monument occupies the centre of each side, flanked by lesser wall monuments.

The apse is framed by a pointed plaster arch in low relief with quatrefoil tracery in the head. The altar, raised on steps in the apse, has a canopy and side-drapes worked in plaster in high relief, with a sunburst bearing a Hebrew inscription in the dome above. Altar steps and an ironwork altar rail sweep out in an oval projection before the apse. Curved braces to the three-bay ceiling are carried by carved angel corbels; the middle two on the north are re-used.

The painted glass east window displays an Old Testament figure of God in the middle with two small framed painted scenes in the outer border and other heraldic fragments. The monument centrally placed on the north side commemorates Sir Henry Penrice (died 1752) and his son, designed by Sir Robert Taylor (signed on the drapery). It features an allegorical figure with raised arm and foot on an anchor before a pink marble obelisk with a portrait medallion. The central monument on the south side commemorates Sir Thomas Salusbury (died 1773), by Nollekens (made 1777), with draped standing figures of a man and woman before a rough-barked tree with drapery looped over it on a grey background with a black sarcophagus. Busts by Nollekens include Samuel Burroughs (died 1761), Mrs Elizabeth Maude (died 1796, in the chancel arch), and William Offley (died 1789, on the south wall). Additional monuments include one to Sir Thomas Salusbury (died 1835) by T. Smith, and two memorials by Saunders (1847 and 1855). Two stone coffins rest in the churchyard against the south aisle.