Church Of St Mary Magdalene

SP 84 SW WOOLSTONE CUM WILLEN MILTON ROAD, WILLEN

2/128 Church of St. Mary Magdalene

17.11.66

GV I

Parish Church. 1678 by Robert Hooke for Dr. Busby, headmaster of Westminster School. W. tower, nave and C19 apse. Red brick with stone dressings, plinth coping, chamfered quoins, architraves and cills to windows, moulded cornices. Copper roofs. The tower has two main stages, the upper with stone Corinthian pilasters at angles supporting entablature and parapet with stone pineapples on plinths at corners, each face has a tall arched upper window over a smaller segmental headed window. The lower stage has chamferedquoins and large recessed arched doorway on ground floor approached by a flight of semi-circular stone steps and a round window above the doorway. Flanking the tower are one storey sections with window on outer face and parapet on W. side swept up to tower with pineapple on outer corner. The nave is pedimented at E. end with bull's eye window in tympanum and has three tall arched windows on N. and S. sides. The apse, added in 1862, is of similar materials and has three similar windows. The interior has elaborate plaster decoration, a panelled dado and pews, the floor of the nave has a diagonal pattern of white stone and black tiles. The contemporary pulpit on the S. side of the nave has been slightly altered and the reading desk is supported on an elaborate panel of wrought iron. The organ case is probably contemporary. The font consists of a bowl of white marble carved with cherubs heads, and drapery standing on a green Irish marble baluster and an ogee shaped wooden cover carved with swags of fruit and flowers with a vase finial. RCHM II. p.330. MON.1.

Listing NGR: SP8784941221