Church Of St Mary

TG 01 NE SPARHAM WELL LANE (north side)

4/39 Church of St.Mary 30.5.60. - I

Parish church. Medieval and later. Flint with ashlar and some brick dress- ings. Slate, lead and black pantile roofs. West tower nave with aisles and south porch and chancel. C14 and C15 west tower with diagonal buttresses and stair turret to south. Chequer flushwork on buttresses. West doorway with dying mouldings and a fine C14 niche above with a nodding ogee arch and little rib vaults. Fleuron decorated reveals flanked by a pair of tiny shafts capped with carved beasts. Crocketted arch with shields set in tracery and an embattled parapet above. Restored 3-light Perpendicular west window. Cusped first floor lights to west and south. 2-light traceried bell openings with super mullions. Crenellated parapet with flushwork and crocketted corner pinnacles. North aisle with plain doorway, a 2-light Y-traceried west window and 4 3-light Perpendicular windows. South aisle with a partly blocked 2-light Decorated west window and 3 3-light Per- pendicular windows. Later clearstorey with 14 3-light Perpendicular windows and a large 3-light east window. Thoroughly restored chancel with 5 2-light cusped Y-traceried side windows, a priest's door and a 2-light Perpendicular window to south. 3-light Perpendicular east window with embattled transoms. South porch with diagonal buttresses, a plain entrance arch and 2-light cusped side windows. Double ogee-moulded south doorway. Interior. Angle piscina in chancel with trilobe cusping. Plain piscina in south aisle. Tower and chancel arches on polygonal responds - plain chamfered to chancel, wave moulded to tower. Rood stair to north. 4-bay nave with one pair of surviving C14 octagonal piers. The 4 westernmost piers have been remodelled in order to support the 2 very wide western bays. The arrangement probably dates from the C19. One pair of blocked C14 quatrefoil clearstorey windows visible from aisles. Fine C15 arch-braced nave roof on wall posts with carved stone corbels. Painted carved angels on ridge purlin and crosses to the side purlins. 2 dado sections of C15 chancel screen in north aisle with original paintings. Several medieval poppy head bench ends.

Listing NGR: TG0710619665