Church Of St Mary

TL 96 SE LANGHAM

4/16 Church of St Mary 15/11/54 II*

Parish church. C14 and C19. In random kidney flint; freestone dressings. slack glazed Plaintiles to nave and porch, clay plaintiles to chancel. Nave, chancel, bellcote at west end, south porch, and a vestry on the south side of the chancel, all, apart from the chancel, Victorian. Stepped buttresses to nave, diagonal buttresses to east end of chancel. Ornate crosses at east end, above chancel arch, and surmounting belfry. Nave, reconstructed in 1877, has 2-light windows with plate tracery, but retains a blocked C14 north doorway with chamfered continuous arch. C14 chancel: the base of the walls with alternating squares of black knapped flint and freestone; 2 2-light windows to north and south with a 4-petalled flower in the cusped traceried heads; 3- light east window, restored 1887, has a large circle enclosing 4 unencircled quatrefoils. Interior fittings mainly Victorian. Fine octagonal C14 font, reminiscent of that at Badwell Ash: high base; shaft with trefoil panelling to each face; bowl with shields and grotesque faces alternating in ogee-headed panels; crenellated top. Rood stairs to the north side of the chancel arch. Fine, but damaged, screen: tracery and remains of colouring on the base; ogee- headed single light divisions with droplets, and close panel tracery above them; coving, and part of the traceried loft parapet reset on top. To each side of the east window a long narrow niche with flamboyant ogee head. A piscina in the south wall has a restored cusped ogee head with HK 1875 inscribed on it. All the chancel windows have old crown glass, mainly in diamond leaded panes. On the north wall of nave, a small brass to John Jolley (d.1630), benefactor of the poor of Langham. The vestry to the south of the chancel has a crenellated top with plain flushwork panels and an external doorway which seems to be the C14 priest's doorway reused: a continuous arch with chamfered moulding and hoodmould.

Listing NGR: TL9805669024