Church Of St Mary

Church of St. Mary, Burgate

This is a parish church of mid to late 14th-century date, with a south porch added and windows renewed in the 15th century. The building was substantially restored in the 19th century: the nave in 1864–65 and the chancel in 1872, both by R.M. Phipson. It is constructed of flint rubble with ashlar dressings and some cement rendering. The nave roof is covered with stone tiles, while the chancel roof is of Welsh slate.

The church is a long building with a west tower and south porch, its chancel raised in the 19th century to form a continuous steeply pitched roof. The west tower is square in plan and rises in three stages. It has a plinth, a string course below a restored west window with cusped tracery, and above, quatrefoils set in circles returning to the flanks. The tower features three-stage diagonal buttresses, a string course to the belfry with openings displaying Y tracery, a frieze with an open design flanked by flushwork quatrefoils, and a string course supporting an embattled parapet.

The south side of the nave displays three Perpendicular windows over a string course, each window containing three ogee-headed lights, with two-stage end buttresses. The rendered south porch, positioned west of centre, has an outer heavily moulded pointed arch with semi-octagonal responds bearing capitals and bases, two-stage diagonal buttresses, and a shallow gabled parapet. The porch returns feature a plinth, blocked windows (the eastern one retaining Perpendicular tracery), and string courses to parapets. The inner entrance arch is continuously moulded with a filleted outer shaft and hoodmould, above which sits an empty brick niche; a stoup is positioned to the east.

The north side of the nave has a blocked entrance opposite the porch, its arch continuously moulded and pointed. Flanking this are two 14th-century two-light windows with curvilinear tracery and mask-stopped hood moulds. Towards the east is a three-light Perpendicular window matching those to the south, with three two-stage buttresses distributed along this elevation.

The chancel features a large 19th-century four-light east window with kneelers below a coped gable parapet crowned with a ridge cross, flanked by two-stage diagonal buttresses. The south side has two 19th-century three-light windows flanking a low continuously moulded pointed entrance arch. The north side is largely rendered and includes a 19th-century two-light window.

The interior is distinguished by a tall pointed tower arch with inner chamfer and outer wave mouldings, returning to semi-octagonal responds with moulded capitals. A 19th-century crown post roof with arched braces and heavy cusped drops replaces the original chancel arch. Ornate stiff-leaf corbels support the structure. Nave windows retain restored rear arches with a moulded band at sill level that rises over the entrances. Rood stairs to the north feature a four-centred arched doorway.

The chancel contains a blocked doorway with moulded arch to the north and a 14th-century piscina to the south, originally crocketed and finalled with an arch displaying the Burgate arms in the spandrels. A 19th-century piscina is located in the nave to the south. A late 14th-century octagonal font stands on a double plinth, inscribed with a dedicatory inscription. The font stem is decorated with four lions, seraphs, and rosettes, while the bowl displays Evangelist symbols, angels, and the Burgate arms.

A square early 17th-century pulpit with two arched panelled sides features strapwork above and a bracketed reading board. A plain medieval chest in the chancel retains traces of early painted decoration. 19th-century additions include a tower screen, west organ, a screen across the nave, poppyhead bench ends, communion rails, and a reredos. Two 18th-century round-headed boards displaying the Credo and Lord's Prayer flank the tower arch. Royal Arms of George II, dated 1735, are positioned above the nave north door.

The chancel contains a large chest tomb to Sir William Burgate (died 1409) and his wife, constructed of ashlar with Purbeck marble capping. It features large brass effigies in ogee-headed canopies with inscriptions around the edge of the capping. The sides display eleven by four arrangements of ogee-headed niches, crocketed and finalled with small buttresses, shields of arms, and winged hearts alternating with empty figural niches. A 1927 War Memorial altar is positioned centrally in the chancel. Fragments of early glass survive at the head of the north nave window.