Church Of St Mary Magdalene

CHURCH OF ST MARY MAGDALENE

Parish church. Dating to the 14th century with a south porch added and refenestrated in the late 15th century, when the building was also raised and altered. The church was thoroughly restored and a vestry added in 1851. The structure is built of flint rubble with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. It comprises a long nave with a narrower, shorter and lower chancel, a west tower, south porch, and north vestry.

The west tower is a tall 14th-century structure of three stages built from knapped flint. Its western entrance has a double wave moulded pointed arch with a mask stopped hoodmould and an offset plinth. A string course marks the tall second stage, which contains a cusped lancet. Three-stage diagonal buttresses rise to the belfry, which has a string course below two-light openings with simple reticulated traceried heads. An embattled parapet with angle pinnacles and a south-facing gargoyle crowns the tower. Lower stages feature a semi-octagonal stair turret to the south, while south-east and north-east buttresses meet diagonal buttresses from the nave.

The south porch is a prominent feature with a restored outer pointed arch having shafted jambs and Tudor flower ornamented double hollow moulding. The hoodmould is mask stopped with a double plinth. The outer surface displays knapped flint in cusped headed panels with a string course at impost level. Above this are two empty niches with cusped, crocketed and pinnacled ogee arches. Circular panels with shields of arms occupy the spandrels. A central niche above the arch string course contains a 19th-century carved mask at its base, topped by a ribbed vaulted ogee canopy with a richly crocketed and pinnacled head. Flanking knapped flint panels have cusped ashlar heads. The porch has a very shallow gable with a plain coped parapet and a central plinth for a statue. Three-stage diagonal ashlar buttresses with pinnacles rise above the parapet, which is decorated with diamond diapering. The porch returns contain two-light Perpendicular windows with brattished rectilinear tracery and gargoyles to the plain parapet. The inner entrance has a pointed arch with double wave moulding dying into chamfered jambs, a hoodmould, and a roof with brattished cornices.

The nave south side has three restored three-light windows, all with pointed arched heads. The window to the east of the porch is Perpendicular, while the outer windows have reticulated tracery. Two-stage buttresses support these windows. The nave north side has a 19th-century gabled vestry to the west of centre, featuring an outer two-light pointed arched window and kneelers to the coped gable parapet. Three restored three-light Perpendicular windows match those to the south, with two-stage buttresses below. The nave east end has moulded kneelers to a coped parapet with a broken ridge cross.

The chancel east end displays a 19th-century three-light window with a pointed arch and moulded, carved kneelers to the coped gable parapet. Two-stage diagonal buttresses flank this. A north-facing side window is a single restored three-light Perpendicular opening with a two-stage buttress. To the south, a low side door has a simple double chamfered pointed arch, flanked by three-light Perpendicular windows with a two-stage buttress.

Internally, a pointed chancel arch with double chamfering and moulded capitals on semi-octagonal responds marks the transition between nave and chancel. The nave features a seven-bay single hammerbeam roof that has been restored with moulded throughout. Arched braces spring from the hammerbeams—these originally carried angels which have since been removed—and arched braces rise to brattished collars with short king posts. Bosses occur where purlins meet principals and at the apex of arched braces, with a moulded and coved cornice to ashlar pieces. The 19th-century chancel roof follows the 15th-century model and includes carved stone mask corbels. A pointed arched doorway leads from the nave to the tower, while the vestry connects to the nave through an originally external moulded pointed arch. The nave north wall contains rood loft stairs with segmental pointed arched headed openings. Towards the east end of the nave south wall, a small piscina has a cusped segmental pointed arched head with broach and bar stopped hollow jambs and an octafoil bowl.

The chancel east window retains 14th-century shafted jambs with capitals and a roll moulded rear arch. The chancel south wall towards the east holds a 14th-century angle piscina with two heavily restored cusped and crocketed ogee arches on shafts, a complex centre pier with a stiff leaf capital, and sedilia below the south window.

The vestry contains a 17th-century communion table with turned legs and a 17th-century timber chest with a circle patterned front, Lord's Prayer and Credo panels. 19th-century furnishings include an octagonal font, poppy headed bench ends, a Gothic pulpit, a richly traceried chancel screen, a tiled chancel floor, and communion rails.

The church contains several monuments of significance. In the chancel north wall stands a large monument of two marbles to the 3rd Lord Henniker (died 1821) and his wife, designed by J. Kendrick. It features a moulded base to a pedestal with inscription and quadrant corners, two nearly life-size female allegorical mourning figures flanking a tall cylindrical pedestal carrying arms and a funerary urn with profiles of the Lord and his wife, set against two pilasters and a simply moulded round arch. Flanking this monument are two oval wall tablets in marble with painted arms and inscriptions: one to Dame E. and Sir J. Major (died 1780 and 1781), and another to Dame A. Henniker, their daughter (died 1792). A cartouche commemorates R. Killigrew (died 1707). The chancel north wall also bears Henniker hatchments. The nave north wall contains a marble tablet to the Honourable Major Henniker (died 1842) by W.R. Woodington, featuring a draped urn and military trappings on a sarcophagus, and a tablet with an urn and scrolls to F.A. Henniker (died 1823) by J. Kendrick. Further 19th and 20th-century Henniker memorials and hatchments are present. The nave to the west displays the Royal Arms of George II. Chancel floor slabs from the 17th century commemorate the Bokenham family, some bearing arms.

The stained glass includes a window by Morris and Company from 1901 in the nave south towards the west end, depicting three full-length saintly figures with musical angels above. Mid-19th-century glass appears in the nave and at the east end of the chancel.