Church Of St Mary The Less

THETFORD

TL8682 BURY ROAD 617-1/7/31 (North West side) 03/04/51 Church of St Mary the Less (Formerly Listed as: BURY ROAD (North West side) Church of St Mary)

GV II*

Parish church. C11 foundation, fabric mainly late C14. West tower rebuilt C15 (donations 1427-1451). Chancel rebuilt C19. Flint, re-used ashlar and clunch with ashlar dressings. Chancel in gault brick. Slate roofs. Nave, north aisle and chancel. 3-stage west tower with flushwork plinth and stepped diagonal buttresses. 4-centred west doorway, the arches moulded. Above is a C19 three-light Perpendicular window. String courses between floors. 2-light cusped belfry windows north and south below crenellated parapet. Gabled south porch with multiple roll-moulded arch. South nave with stepped side buttresses and three 2-light C19 windows. North nave aisle lit through two 2-light and one 3-light Y-tracery windows, also C19. Gabled nave and chancel roofs. Chancel south with two 2-light C19 windows. INTERIOR: inner south doorway with C19 mouldings. C16 porch roof with rafters and purlins. Canopied statuary niche over door. Wave-moulded tower arch. C19 tower screen. C12 north doorway within later aisle: one order of shafts rising to cushion capitals with a roll-moulded arch. 2-bay north arcade of polygonal piers with circular east-west responds and stilted arches. C19 nave roof with hammerbeams on arched braces. Wave-moulded chancel arch. North chancel chapel with stilted double-chamfered arch to chancel. No capitals. Single-chamfered arch to north nave aisle. Boarded chancel roof of 1891. C19 font. South nave aisle with an exploded tomb-chest embedded in wall to Sir Richard Fulmerston, 1567. Over north doorway a second inscription to Sir Richard, 1566. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North-west and South Norfolk: Harmondsworth: 1962-: 341).

Listing NGR: TL8678982822