Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Withersfield

This is a 14th-century church substantially rebuilt and extended from the late 15th century onwards. It is constructed of flint and septaria rubble with stone dressings, with tiled and leaded roofs. The plan comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, a west tower, and a chancel with a north vestry.

The earliest surviving elements are fragments from the late 13th or early 14th century, including a capital and shaft reused as a stoup in the south aisle, which probably came from a former south aisle, and a 13th-century door handle. The chancel dates from the 14th century and was rebuilt in the 19th century; it retains Decorated-style two-light windows to north and south, and a large 15th-century-style east window with vertical tracery.

The north aisle was constructed around 1480, as recorded by a brass to Robert Wyburgh who funded its construction. The clerestory is late 15th or early 16th century. Both aisle and clerestory contain windows of cusped lights in four-centred heads. The north aisle is not embattled, but the clerestory is. A late 15th-century north door with a four-centred head survives; the bottom has been repaired but the door is contemporary. The south aisle was added in 1866 to match the north aisle, and is also embattled as is the south clerestory. A 19th-century south porch accompanies it. The elaborate south door, probably early 16th-century and reset during the 19th-century rebuilding, has a pointed opening within a square surround and makes fine use of fleurons and blind tracery in the spandrels. A 14th-century niche with a modern statue sits above the door. The double-leaf south doors have rectangular panelling and date to the 18th century; the door handle is 13th-century, with a large pierced plate and an oval ring featuring two lizards.

The tall 15th-century west tower is embattled with diagonal buttresses and a polygonal southeast stair turret. It contains a three-light 15th-century west window with vertical tracery, small square openings in the middle stage, and two-light windows in the upper stage. There is no west door.

Internally, the late 15th-century north arcade contains four bays with quatrefoil piers, polygonal moulded capitals, and hollow chamfered arches. The 19th-century south arcade copies the northern design. A 15th-century chancel arch with embattled capitals separates the chancel. To the south of this arch is a badly damaged statue niche with the remains of the upper door to the rood loft above it; the lower door remains visible in the south aisle. A tall 15th-century tower arch of two orders has its inner order carried on half-round shafts with polygonal moulded capitals. The stoup in the south aisle, made from a remodelled late 13th or 14th-century capital and shaft, may have come from a former south arcade.

The late medieval nave roof features false hammerbeams and large tie-beams that now conceal steelwork inserted in 1983. Two of the hammers retain figures, and mortises for others are visible. The very fine late 15th-century north aisle roof has arched braces on wall posts with stone corbels, embattled wall plates, and carved bosses including the arms of the de Vere family. It was repaired in 1974.

The principal fixtures include the 13th-century handle on the south door with its round pierced plate and oval ring with lizards or dragons. A stoup inside the south door was made from a remodelled 13th or early 14th-century capital and shaft. A 15th-century chancel screen with Perpendicular tracery retains its original doors, recoloured in the 19th century. Two sets of late medieval benches survive in the nave: those on the north have square ends and shallow buttresses; those on the south have shaped ends and large poppyheads with figural carvings depicting Saint George and the dragon, Saint Michael weighing souls, birds in foliage, angels with shields and other subjects. A probably 17th-century font is polygonal with simple traceried panels and armorial shields. An early 17th-century pulpit has two rows of blind arcading. In the north aisle is a brass to Robert Wyburgh recording his construction of the aisle in 1480; a brass in the nave commemorates Joan Bury (died 1570). The north aisle east window dates to the 1970s and is by Pippa Heskett; a few fragments of medieval glass remain in the clerestory.

The place of Withersfield is mentioned in Domesday Book, but the church is not, and its foundation date is uncertain. The earliest surviving fabric is the 13th or early 14th-century capital and shaft reused as a stoup, and the 13th-century door handle. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century. The chancel arch is 15th-century, and the north aisle was built or rebuilt in 1480 by Robert Wyburgh. The clerestory is late 15th or early 16th century. A south aisle probably existed in the medieval period but was demolished in the post-medieval era. The present south aisle and south porch were constructed in 1866-7, designed by Clark and Holland, and the chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century. The roofs were rebuilt and reinforced with steel in the 20th century, with restoration undertaken in the late 20th century.