Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Rickmansworth

This parish church comprises a west tower of around 1630, with aisles remaining from an 1825–6 rebuilding by W. Atkinson, and a nave, chancel, chapel and vestry added in 1890–1 by Sir A. Blomfield. An early 20th-century porch completes the composition. The building is constructed of knapped flint with stone dressings; the aisles are of stock brick with slate roofs, while the nave and chancel have leaded roofs. The architectural character combines Gothic Survival tower design with Gothick Revival aisles and Decorated Gothic Revival nave, chancel, south vestry and north porch.

The west tower rises in four stages with three-stage clasping buttresses articulated with stone quoining. A chamfered pointed arch frames the double west door, above which is a cornice to an empty panel. Plinth and string courses mark the stages. The second stage contains a three-light traceried window dated 1933 with "1630" incised above. The third stage has two-light square-headed windows with cusped lights and hood moulds. The belfry stage features three-light pointed arched openings with uncusped traceried heads and hood moulds, surmounted by an embattled parapet and leaded spirelet.

The six-bay aisles are of stock brick with red brick window surrounds, stone-capped plinth and buttresses. The south aisle has four-light windows with ogee arched heads to the centre bays and two lights on the west return, all with leaded panes, chamfered reveals and hood moulds. Two windows have 18th-century tomb panels beneath them. The north aisle is similar, with a 19th-century tomb plaque at the east end. Both have oversailing courses to a moulded stone course at the eaves and lean-to roofs.

The five-bay nave has three-light clerestorey windows with four-centred heads and cusped lights, featuring hollow moulded inner and chamfered outer surrounds. A moulded cornice and embattled parapet run along the walls. The chancel contains a large five-light east window with decorated tracery and pointed arched head, flanked by two-stage diagonal buttresses. The south return has a tall two-light window with traceried head, while the north return features a three-light window with traceried round arched head. Gargoyles mark the returns, and the parapet is coped and embattled with crocketed and cusped panelled corner finials.

The southeast vestry is single-storey and flat-roofed, with a four-light east window with square head and cusped lights. A stepback marks the entrance bay, which has a four-centred head above the door and a coped parapet. On the west bay of the north aisle stands the porch, with its entrance on the east return in a pointed arch, two traceried lancets to the north and one on the west return, diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet.

The interior features a pointed tower arch with two chamfered orders and an outer hollow order. The five-bay nave arcades have octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals, pointed arches and two hollow orders. A moulded string course runs below the clerestorey. Shafts between bays act as corbels to timber braces of the roof, which are four-centred arched braces with traceried panels to brattished tie beams and wind braces. The lean-to aisle roofs are supported on curved braces. Doors from the aisle west bays have ogee heads. The chancel arch has hollow moulded orders on short respond columns mounted on angel corbels. Pointed arches connect the aisles to the north chapel and south vestry, and the chancel to the north chapel.

The chancel south wall contains triple sedilia and piscina with crocketing and cusped panels, beneath which runs a stiff leaf frieze. Engaged shafts flank the angles. An octagonal 19th-century font stands at the west end of the nave. A traceried timber screen separates the nave from the tower. The octagonal pulpit and choir seating date to 1890. Mosaic strips ornament the chancel east wall.

The monuments include a chest tomb to H. Cary, Earl of Monmouth (died 1661) on the chancel north wall, with a moulded base, renewed marble slab, and alabaster arms in high relief on the short ends. The front has a bolection surround to an extensive inscription. A signed wall slab by W. Woodman commemorates T. Fotherley (late 17th century) with an aedicular Baroque surround featuring a scrolled open pediment, seraphs, foliage and scrolled jambs, with swags below a bracketed sill. A fragment of inscribed stone to T. Fotherley (died 1624) and his wife (died 1584) appears on the north chapel west wall. At the west end of the south aisle is a marble slab by Flaxman to the Earle family (1796), with an urn above a Greek Revival tablet and arms below. The west end of the north aisle has a marble slab by J.J. Saunders to H. Fotherley Whitfield (died 1813), showing a draped urn on a tablet. Further 17th-century floor slabs and 18th-century wall slabs are distributed throughout. The east window contains a Crucifixion in stained glass by Burne-Jones, executed in 1896.