Church Of St Mary

FLOWTON TM 04 NE 6/110 Church of St. Mary 9.12.55 - I

Church, mediaeval. Nave, chancel, south porch, west tower. Mainly flint rubble walling with freestone dressings and massive buttressing. Plaintiled roofs. An unusually complete example of an early C14 parish church, with a little alteration of later C14 and c.1500. Simple 2-light Y-traceried side windows and hood-moulded nave doorways, in some cases with mask drip-moulds. Both nave and chancel have good and complete early C14 roofs; long octagonal crownposts with moulded capitals ana square-sectioned 4-way braces; tie-beams, arch-braces, wallposts and cornices are all moulded. The south porch has a moulded arched Oak doorway of early C14, but was reroofed in C17 and repaired in red brick in C20. The tower has a moulded south doorway and quatrefoil ringing chamber windows; flanking the C14 west window are late C14/C15 image niches, with just the stools remaining. A gallery in the tower is C14/C15, extended past the tower arch in C18. From the gallery rises a rare C14/C15 timber stair with triangular block treads. the tower top stage was demolished in C18 (faculty given 1747) and a pyramid roof constructed behind brick parapets partly from the original bellframe (the remainder was adapted for a single bell). Large east window of later C14 with reticulated tracery. Other C14 features includes shafted chancel arch, a plain piscina and a fragment of red abstract painting on the south nave wall. C1500, a large 3-light window and rood loft stair turret were inserted both using red brick (bequest for painting candlebeam 1510). Octagonal C13 font with splayed bowl, each face with shallow arcading; C17 Oak cover with ramped scrolls. In the chancel floor are ledger slabs of 1612 and 1649, in the nave are two more of 1643 and 1646.

Listing NGR: TM0819546856