Church Of St Mary

WORLINGWORTH CHURCH STREET TM 26 NW 5/115 Church of St Mary 29.7.55 - I Parish church. Medieval, restored 1866. Nave, chancel, west tower, south porch. Flint rubble with stone dressings. Nave roof leaded, chancel plaintiled. Mid C15 square tower, 23m high; 4-stage diagonal buttresses with chequer flushwork; crenellated parapet, restored mid C20. Moulded west doorway with shield-carved spandrels; above is a renewed 3-light window. 2- light belfry openings. 4-bay nave, completed c.1478, with contemporary porch. Both are enriched with various flushwork designs on plinth and buttresses. Large 3-light windows. Good south doorway with 2 orders of shafts and many continuous mouldings; original door. Moulded north doorway with one order of shafts supporting a hoodmould; the jambs and arch are also carved with fleurons, masks and beasts' heads; original door. Fine porch, the facade with further flushwork designs and arched panelling above; moulded entrance arch, the spandrels carved with St George and the dragon; empty canopied statue niche; crenellated parapet with flushwork. Original roof with moulded timbers. 3-bay chancel of c.1300, the 2-light side windows and Priest's doorway substantially intact; 4-light east window with Geometric tracery. The windows are hoodmoulded internally. Interior. Nave has a fine original 9-bay double hammerbeam roof: pierced tracery above the lower hammerbeams and above the collars; enriched cornice; the angels at the ends of the lower hammerbeams are a mid C20 addition. Arched-braced chancel roof of 1866. Chancel has intact angle piscina of c.1300 with a drop-sill sedilia adjacent; a further piscina in the south-east nave. In north-east corner of nave is the roof loft stair with original arched entrances above and below. C15 octagonal font on a wide, 2-stepped base; bowl panels carved with Signs of the Evangelists and shield-bearing angels; 4 lions against the stem, at the base of which is an original inscription. Tall C15 font cover with crocketed and buttressed canopy, much restored; it was re-painted and gilded in 1963. Fine and unusual set of early C17 nave box pews, splaying outwards to west: carved ends with knob finials and back-to-back consoles; a carved panel to the front of one bench at the east end bears the date 1630. Early C17 carved hexagonal pulpit with suspended tester; later wooden base and other alteration. Dado of C15 rood screen with 6 2-light traceried panels. Mid-late C19 chancel furnishings including marble and stone reredos. Chancel contains 3 good wall monuments: Sir John Major (1781); Dame Ann Henniker (1792); Elizabeth, Dowager Duchess of Chandos (1813); for details see Pevsner. Several C17-C18 ledger slabs in nave. Tracery of nave windows contains fragments of C15 glass. Small remains of medieval wall painting on north nave wall; on south-east wall part of another painting, showing a fleur-de-lys and crown. Framed Arms of George III, c.1810, on north nave wall.

Listing NGR: TM2336468642