Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This parish church at White Waltham dates from the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, though it was heavily restored in 1868. The building is constructed mostly of flint with some chequered stone and flint, and features chalk and Bath stone dressings. It has tile roofs and comprises a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, north and south transepts, and a chancel.

The west tower rises in three stages. It has a weathered plinth with a string moulded with bolection moulding, and a moulded cornice on small shaped brackets leading to the parapet. A circular stair turret projects from the north-west corner, rising just above the tower and topped with a conical tile roof and broken finial. The lowest stage contains a 19th-century three-light traceried window on the west face with a pointed moulded head enriched with dog-tooth ornament. The ringing stage has lancet windows on three faces, each recessed within a cusped inner opening and topped with a cusped and pointed outer arched opening. The bell chamber is fitted with a clock face and two-light cusped louvred openings with pointed moulded arched heads enriched with dog-tooth ornament on three faces.

The north aisle of the nave has a 13th-century two-light lancet window at its west end, restored, with a quatrefoil above. The north wall contains three 19th-century two-light coupled trefoiled windows, with a clasping buttress at the north-west corner.

The south aisle features three 19th-century two-light coupled trefoiled windows along its south wall. Between the second and third windows from the east stands a gabled porch with a doorway whose outer jambs have attached shafts crowned by reset 12th-century scalloped capitals, much decayed. The porch's left end contains a 19th-century lancet, and its west wall holds a small 13th-century pointed window. To the left of this window is a 19th-century door within a pointed arched opening of two orders with a hood-mould enriched with dog-tooth ornament.

The north transept contains a reset 13th-century chalk window with two lancet lights and a circular light over, plus two 19th-century lancet windows in the east wall.

The south transept's east wall displays two windows: the right-hand window dates from the 14th century and has two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil beneath a pointed head and moulded labels; the left-hand window is 13th-century with two lancets. The south wall, built of chequered stone and flint, features a 19th-century three-light cusped window with reticulated traceried head and 14th-century jambs. Numerous 17th- and 18th-century graffiti in the form of names and initials are carved into this wall, along with two similarly carved sun-dials. A small 19th-century plank door in a pointed arched opening appears on the west return.

The chancel's east wall contains three chalk 13th-century lancet windows with a circular light over the centre one. These have chamfered jambs with rebates for shutters and are much restored.

Internally, a Norman arch surviving from the 12th-century church stands on the south side of the tower. The chancel has a four-bay barrel ribbed and boarded roof. On the east wall between the lancet windows are tall pointed recesses with continuous roll-moulded arrises. Two-bay 19th-century arcades with pointed arches open into the north and south transepts. In the south-east corner of the chancel is a 13th-century double piscina, restored, with a central detached marble shaft with moulded capital and base and corresponding attached shafts to the responds and moulded trefoiled arches. The chancel arch is pointed with two hollow-chamfered orders carried on semi-octagonal responds with 15th-century moulded capitals and bases. At the south-east of the south transept is a pointed piscina with sunk quarter-round jambs and a circular basin now cut off flush with the wall. Opening from the south transept to the south aisle is a stilted drop arch of two sunk quarter-round orders. The nave has an arched braced collar roof, and its arcades consist of two bays each with pointed arches on central columns of Romanesque design.

The church contains several monuments. Below the south window in the south transept are the remains of a 14th-century segmental-headed tomb recess. On the north wall under the tower stands a marble monument to Constantine Phipps Miles, who died in 1728, featuring a moulded plinth and base, an open pediment on brackets, and a surmounting urn. A brass set in a marble slab on the floor at the east end of the nave commemorates Margaret, wife of John Hilk, who died in 1465. On the west wall of the south transept is a carved marble cartouche inscribed to the memory of William Neile, who died in 1670 and was a Fellow of the Royal Society and privy councillor to King Charles II.