Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Washbrook

This is a parish church with 12th-century origins, substantially rebuilt in the early and later 14th century, with significant 19th-century restoration work. The building is constructed of random flint rubble with some brick and stone dressings, roofed with alternating bands of plain red and black fishscale tiles with a crested ridge.

The church comprises a west tower, nave and chancel in one, south porch, and north vestry and baptistry. The three-stage square tower has an embattled brick parapet and incorporates scattered early brickwork throughout the fabric. Diagonal offset west buttresses support the tower, with right-angled buttresses against the nave, which appears contemporary with the tower. A stair turret occupies the south-east angle against the nave. Above a stone base, a plinth of alternating stone and flint flushwork panels in a chequerwork pattern continues across the buttresses. The 19th-century west window comprises three lights with panel tracery beneath a stilted arch and hood. Single bell openings with cusped heads appear on the north, west, and south faces. Vertical slit openings serve the stair turret. The quoins are detailed as if formed of long and short work on the tower and buttresses.

The late 19th-century south porch features a brick and flint base with timber framing above, and carries a similar banded tiled roof with ridge cresting. The doorway is in 14th-century style with figure stops to the hood, and the door retains studded strap hinges. Above a rendered plinth, a continuous band of alternating stone and flushwork panels runs across the south wall, sometimes mutilated, incorporating a right-hand offset buttress and diagonal buttresses at the east end, with the pattern repeated on the north face. A later central brick buttress divides the south wall. A moulded band drops to form the cill band of a Decorated window and continues with the eastern buttresses across the chancel to the north face, interrupted only by a 19th-century inserted chancel doorway and the east window.

To the left of the porch is a two-light window of late Decorated or early Perpendicular style with ogee-headed cusped lights and cusped tracery above, beneath a stilted arch and hood. A probable 12th-century lancet stands to the right of the porch. To the right of this is a 19th-century three-light window with panel tracery beneath a stilted arch, with one figure stop (the other missing). A pair of two-light windows with curvilinear heads beneath mouchettes carries stilted arches with hollow and ogee-moulded responds. A similar but restored chancel window is interrupted by a 19th-century inserted doorway with label and carved spandrels.

The east window, a 19th-century work, comprises three lights with cusped intersecting tracery set within the larger opening and moulded surround of the former 14th-century east window, whose base originally sat on top of the moulded band. The north face carries two similar 14th-century windows to the nave and chancel, with the same plinth and band stopping at a flint buttress. A partly restored late Decorated or early Perpendicular window and a similar lancet complete the fenestration. The north baptistry, a 19th-century addition, features a north window matching those on the nave, and single cusped lights to the east and west.

Interior

A simple chamfered tower arch opens to the nave. The chancel arch features quatrefoil responds with three filleted shafts, wave-moulded necking, ogee-moulded capitals, and shallow bell bases. The nave is spanned by a three-bay crown post roof with tall thin octagonal posts, straight four-way bracing, and an exposed collar purlin, with the remainder covered by a 19th-century canted and boarded roof featuring slender ribs and bosses at the intersections. A 15th-century moulded cornice runs below the roof, and a niche stands to the right of the south door. The baptistry to the north has a chamfered rear arch. The octagonal font features four lions to the stem between pilaster shafts, with angels bearing shields alternating with roses and acanthus-like leaves on the bowl, partly restored. The nave carries 19th-century fittings.

The chancel features north and south six-bay shallow arcades, each shaft comprising east and west engaged shafts with scroll-moulded necking and square-cut north and south faces, all beneath a single moulded capital. The arches are ogee-headed cinquefoils with heavily ornate cusping and crocketting on the extrados, terminating in crocketed finials. A figure head adorns the base of each arch at the capital top, with moulded bases to the shafts. The shafts and rear are painted, with 19th-century boarding to one-third height behind. At finial level, a hollow-moulded band carries fleurons on the south arcade only, all restored. An unrestored south sedilia features a single similar blind arcade to east and west with engaged shafts, cusped ogee heads, and a band above with a figure stop at the outer angle. A similar restored north sedilia is treated identically. East and west of the vestry door beneath the curvilinear north window, part-restored detailing mirrors this treatment. South of the altar stands a two-bay stepped sedilia with a horizontal band at finial level carrying fleuron ornament, the central shaft matching the chancel arcade but with flatter almost four-centre arched heads, all partly restored. North of the altar, a cusped canopy rising to a crocketed finial is flanked by tall square-sectioned shafts also carrying tall crocketed finials. The responds consist of two orders with one filleted shaft, moulded caps and bases. The chancel roof, boarded over in the 19th century, retains a thin medieval cornice.