Church Of St Mary

TL 9267-9367 PAKENHAM CHURCH HILL (EAST SIDE) 4/69 Church of St. Mary 14.7.55 I

Parish church. C12 and later, extended and extensively restored 1849, by SS. Teulon. Cruciform plan, with low central tower. Tower has coursed rabble flint walling to lower stage, later freestone diagonal buttresses. Octagonal C14 upper part, with cusped 2-light windows and crenellated parapet rebuilt in gault brick. Nave and chancel in rubble flint with freestone dressings. Traces of a lower roofline in the west gable wall of the nave indicate a late medieval heightening. 2 identical Romanesque doorways in west and south walls with one order of shafts, scalloped capitals and heavy roll-mould. 5-light west window with perpendicular tracery, copied in the east window in the mid C19. Also mid C19, the poppy-head benches, pulpit, and open timber roof in the nave. Ornate C15 font, possibly restored, has figures of 4 monks around base, emblems of the 4 Evangelists interspersed with a dragon, lamb, unicorn and pelican, all symbols relevant to baptism, around the bowl. Tall wooden font cover, C20, carved in traditional style. C12 chancel arch: moulded with one hollow and one half-roll, saltire crosses in the abaci, nook shafts. Fragments of medieval rood-screen incorporated in later work. Chancel has 8 C15 poppy-head bench ends reused in later stalls. Late C17 black ledger slabs on floor. Late C17 communion rails with twisted balusters. Barrel roof, with the eastern bay over altar treated as a canopy of honour with C19 Gothic decoration. North and south transepts and porch by Teulon, south trensept said to be a rebuilding. All are faced with kidney flints: Early English style. Open timber roofs. Interior of north transept divided by a Gothic timber screen, with decorative cresting, to make a vestry. The east and west walls of the south transept each have a funeral hatchment. Fixed outside against the south wall of the chancel are the remains of 4 medieval stone coffin- lids; against the east wall, 3 ornate C18 headstones. C19 vestry, in north-east angle of chancel and transept, has 5 ornate C18 headstones against north wall, 2 with feet also.

Listing NGR: TL9298867063