Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a substantial medieval parish church whose visible fabric spans from the late 13th century through to the early 16th century, with significant Victorian restoration and 20th-century repairs. The chancel dates from the late 13th century, as does the western part of the north arcade of the nave. The north aisle was rebuilt and the arcade extended eastward in the 15th century. The west tower was added in the 15th century. The south aisle and its arcade are early 16th century, with a contemporary south porch. The tower underwent repairs in 1827. The chancel was restored in 1867, the nave and aisles in 1873, and the roofs in 1887, all to designs by George Gilbert Scott in 1873, with further work by John Oldrid Scott. A northwest vestry was added in 1888 to designs by Charles James Mann. Further repairs were carried out in 1937 by William Ernest Tronke, and additional restoration and repair took place in the late 20th century.

Materials and Construction

The church is built of flint and stone rubble with Reigate stone and other stone dressings. The roofs are covered with tiles and lead. The south porch is timber-framed, sitting on dwarf brick walls with stone dressings.

Plan

The church comprises a chancel, nave with north and south aisles, west tower, south porch, and northwest vestry.

Exterior

The church has the appearance of a village church. The 13th-century chancel features lancet windows with hood moulds in both the north and south walls, plus an additional 14th-century window of two ogee lights. The east window is a very large five-light late 15th-century opening with vertical tracery and super mullions. The nave has no clerestory, but there are two probably post-medieval weatherboarded dormers in the south side of the nave roof. The east gable of the nave is also weatherboarded.

The 15th-century north aisle is embattled and has a three-light east window with vertical tracery and super mullions, and three two-light north windows with square heads. The north aisle west window, visible above the vestry, dates from around 1400 and has two cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoil. The early 16th-century south aisle has no parapet; its windows have segmental heads and plain, unfoiled lights. There is a small, heavily restored door to the east of the easternmost south window in the aisle, presumably a former priest's door for a chapel in the aisle.

The restored early 16th-century south porch is timber-framed on dwarf brick walls. It has an outer arch with moulded posts and a four-centred head within a square frame; the flanking and side lights are also four-centred. Carved bargeboards and decorative framing embellish the gable. The inner doorway also has a fine early 16th-century square surround with tracery spandrels, and a contemporary early 16th-century door with square framing, battens, and strap hinges.

The west tower is a three-stage 15th-century structure with a restored embattled parapet and a small spirelet. The west door has a pointed head in a square surround with carved spandrels. The three-light west window resembles those in the south aisle.

Interior

There is no chancel arch, and the chancel roof extends two bays into what is now the nave. On the north side, it is carried on 15th-century corbelled wall arches to accommodate a change in angle between the chancel and nave. The corbels are carved as figures. The 13th-century lancets in the chancel have moulded rear arches on corbels decorated with grotesques, heads, and foliage. There is also a blocked lancet at the west end of the chancel south wall.

The north arcade has five bays with chamfered arches. The two western piers are late 13th century with large, flat moulded capitals and octagonal piers; the eastern bays also have moulded capitals and polygonal piers, but date from the 15th century. The four-bay south arcade is early 16th century with moulded four-centred arches, octagonal piers, and moulded capitals. The west tower arch is 15th century with a continuous moulded outer order and an inner order on polygonal responds.

Roofs

The roofs are particularly noteworthy. The chancel has a 15th-century waggon roof with flat rafters and moulded wall plates that continue two bays into the nave. The nave roof is early 16th century, boarded and panelled with foliate bosses bearing symbols of the Passion, Tudor roses, and other emblems at the intersections of the moulded ribs.

The north aisle roof is 15th century with flat-pitched tie beams and curved braces on stone corbels carved with heads, demi-angels, and foliage. During a restoration in the 1970s, several bosses were replaced with modern motifs, including the emblems of the Scouts, Cubs, Brownies, and Mothers' Union. The early south aisle roof is flat-pitched with moulded principals, the mouldings forming elegant diamonds at the intersections. The south porch roof is 16th century with wind-braced purlins and a central collar beam.

Fittings and Furnishings

The chancel contains mid-13th-century sedilia: three seats of equal height with moulded arches and detached shafts with moulded capitals. Adjacent to these is a trefoiled 13th-century piscina, with another in the south aisle. The font dates from the late 12th or early 13th century: a round bowl with trailing leaf ornament on a central shaft surrounded by eight detached Purbeck marble shafts. The cover is a tall timber spire from the late 19th or early 20th century.

Two panels of 15th-century screen work are incorporated into the 19th-century screen under the tower arch. An impressive late 15th-century wall painting of St Christopher survives in the north aisle, embellished with detailed touches including a mermaid and an angler beside the teeming river.

The chancel floor is laid with 19th-century encaustic tiles. The pulpit is a late 19th or early 20th-century polygonal carved timber piece on a low polygonal stone base. The south chapel reredos is an early 20th-century carved timber piece designed by George Fellowes Prynne, and a painted triptych of 1909 by Charles Fenner Prynne stands in the north chapel. The glass throughout is 19th century.

Monuments

The church contains notable monuments. Brasses include Robert Levee, depicted as a demi-figure of a priest, around 1370 — the earliest brass in Middlesex. In the north aisle is a stone altar tomb for Walter Green, died 1456, with traceried front panels and an inset brass. In the south aisle stands a brick table tomb with two brasses for Thomas and Elizabeth Higate, died 1576.

In the chancel is a grand wall monument for Sir Edward Fenner, died 1612, showing a reclining effigy under a canopy with two allegorical figures. Also commemorated is his son, Edward Fenner, died 1615, with a Mannerist demi-figure in armour within a shell niche flanked by pilasters and topped by an achievement of arms. A plain tablet with a bust commemorates Charles Manning, died 1799, and there are numerous other wall tablets from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The church also contains some good ledger slabs.

Churchyard Features

The churchyard contains a separately listed 16th-century lychgate with moulded cross-braced uprights, moulded brackets to the tie beam, and a tiled roof.

History

The church is a peculiar of Canterbury — that is, it is subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury rather than to the Diocese of London in which it is physically located. A priest at Hayes in the archbishop's manor there is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The earliest visible fabric is the 13th-century chancel and the western part of the north aisle, and it is possible that the church was wholly rebuilt at that date, as the font is also mid-13th century.

The way in which the chancel roof extends into the nave suggests that the chancel probably once extended further westward into what is now the east part of the nave, and that the east ends of the aisles were originally chancel chapels. The church was restored piecemeal in the late 19th century, and although the works were designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, much of the work was undertaken after his death by his son John Oldrid Scott and by the contractors, Messrs Fassnidge.