Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

This limestone rubble church with ashlar dressings and copper roofs stands on the north side of Merton Road in Ambrosden. Built over three centuries from the late 12th to the 15th centuries, it comprises a chancel, south sacristy, nave, south aisle, south porch, and west tower. The chancel was probably built for Ashridge colleges. The building was restored in 1847 and again in 1867 by C.N. Beazley.

The 15th-century chancel features a plinth parapet with stepped buttresses and 2-light arched side windows with Perpendicular tracery. A 3-light traceried east window lights the interior, while a priest's door opens to the south, alongside a contemporary sacristy with a matching moulded parapet.

The 14th-century south aisle contains four buttresses with image niches, two of which may be earlier. Three 2-light side windows and the east window have 15th-century tracery, probably inserted into the original 14th-century openings. A 14th-century lancet near the porch retains its original tracery but has been damaged. The large porch displays a 2-light traceried 15th-century window to the east, but retains a 14th-century trefoil window to the west and 14th-century entrance. Both porch and aisle have restored 14th-century pierced parapets of trefoils; the aisle parapet rises from a corbel table of grotesque faces. A 14th-century south doorway features continuous mouldings, topped by a cinquefoiled image niche surrounded by ballflower ornament.

The north side of the nave, mostly rebuilt in the 15th century, displays three tall 2-light traceried windows and 15th-century stepped buttresses. It retains traces of an earlier archway at the east end and a 12th-century doorway with large roll moulding rising from detached shafts with cushion capitals. A projecting rood stair forms a turret.

The massive three-stage tower features large lancets to the west and south (the latter above a Tudor-arched doorway) and a small lancet in the middle stage. The bell-chamber openings are 2-light with central shafts and semi-circular outer arches. The north-west angle has shallow ashlar buttresses, while the south-west angle has large 15th-century buttresses. The parapet is crenellated. The stonework is exceptionally small rubble; the upper stage displays pargetting: on the east, a lion and a restored dragon dated 1587, and on the west a patterned fragment.

Interior

The chancel has dropped cills to all side windows, some forming sedilia, and a moulded column piscina. Shafts flanking the altar, with 13th-century stiff-leaf capitals, are re-used. The panelled roof with moulded purlins and cambered tiebeams is probably original. A plain 15th-century chancel arch and similar tower arch open to the nave.

The 14-bay south arcade features octagonal piers (one renewed) with moulded bases and capitals. A large squint opens to the east. The nave roof is 19th century but the aisle roof may contain some old timbers. An organ blocks an arched doorway to the rood stair. The interior of the tower has very wide splays to the lancets on the south and west.

Fittings and Monuments

A 15th-century octagonal pedestal font is panelled with quatrefoils and has a panelled conical counterweighted cover dated 1687. The interior also contains 17th-century bench pews and a parish chest dated 1785. Monuments include an early 18th-century marble wall tablet to William Allen with Corinthian pilasters and triangular pediment, several 18th and 19th-century wall tablets below the tower, and a group of 17th and 18th-century ledgers in the sanctuary. Stained glass in the east window dates to circa 1900.