Church Of St Mary

Church of Saint Mary, Glympton

The Church of Saint Mary dates from around 1200, with a tower built in the 16th or 17th century. The building was heavily restored in 1872 by the architect G.E. Street, when the chancel was rebuilt and a porch and vestry were added. The church is constructed of squared and coursed limestone with ashlar dressings and stone slate roofs.

The church comprises a four-bay nave with a south porch, a three-bay chancel with a north vestry, and a west tower. The 19th-century work is executed in a Decorated Gothic style.

The tower is in three stages with a moulded plinth, moulded cornice and parapet with coping. A large buttress and stairtower stands to the south with chamfered offsets, and a partly 19th-century buttress stands to the north. The west face has a square-headed belfry opening with two cinquefoil-headed lights and hollow-chamfered reveals, with a relieving arch. The south face has a small hollow-chamfered rectangular belfry opening. The second stage contains a small rectangular window to the south and a chamfered rectangular window to the north. A three-light stone window to the west has chamfered mullions, hollow-chamfered reveals and a relieving arch. The north wall of the tower incorporates some reset 12th-century chevron-ornamented masonry.

The nave has a high chamfered plinth, moulded cill string, buttresses with chamfered offsets, and a parapeted gable end to the east with coping, gabled kneelers and a cross at the apex. Two windows on the south side contain two and three trefoil-headed lights respectively with cusped tracery and returned hood moulds. The south doorway features a continuously-chamfered inner arch, a moulded outer arch, one order of shafts with moulded bases and capitals, a hood mould with carved stops, and a boarded door with decorative strap hinges. Two windows on the north side each contain three trefoil-headed lights with cusped tracery; the right-hand window has reticulated tracery. A chamfered rectangular opening appears below the right-hand window.

The south porch has a chamfered plinth with chamfered corners with bar stops, a string course carried over as a hood mould, and a parapeted gable with coping and a cross at the apex. The entrance has moulded bases and capitals, and a continuously-chamfered outer arch. The interior contains a turned-rafter roof, stone side benches and an encaustic tiled floor.

The chancel has a chamfered plinth, moulded cill string, diagonal buttresses with chamfered offsets, a low buttress to the east, and a parapeted gable end with coping, gabled kneelers and a cross at the apex. Weathering runs against the east wall of the nave. Two windows on the south side contain two trefoil-headed lights each with cusped tracery, hollow-chamfered reveals and returned hood moulds. Stone steps with low side walls lead up to a central priest's doorway with a continuous hollow-chamfered arch, a string course carried over as a hood mould, and a boarded door with strap hinges. The east window has three lights, with the outer lights trefoil-headed and the centre light cinquefoil-headed, with cusped tracery, moulded reveals and a hood mould with uncarved stops.

The lean-to vestry has a chamfered plinth, moulded cill string and parapeted end walls with copings and gabled kneelers. A pair of chamfered trefoil-headed lancets with wrought-iron bars appears on one face, and a window of two trefoil-headed lights on the left-hand return front. The right-hand return front has a boarded door with strap hinges, a chamfered arch and a string course carried over as a hood mould.

The interior contains a 19th-century four-bay nave roof with double hammer beams, cusped spandrels, king posts from collars, pairs of purlins and moulded wooden wall plates. Reused 12th-century carved stone corbels support the roof. A double-chamfered tower arch dating from around 1200 has an inner chamfer springing from corbels and an outer continuous chamfer.

The chancel arch is a restored and widened example from around 1200, featuring deep roll moulding and dogtooth ornament, with responds consisting of two orders of shafts with cushion capitals (one with volutes) and abaci with dogtooth ornament. An inscription on the north respond reads "DEDICATIO HUIUS TEMPLI IDUS MARTII". The 19th-century three-bay chancel roof features moulded arched-braced collars, king posts with pierced cusped spandrels, wooden wall plates with billet ornament and ashlar pieces, and single purlins. A double-chamfered arch to the vestry has an inner chamfer dying into responds and an outer continuous chamfer.

Sedilia beneath the south-east window consists of an arch, moulded cill, scalloped bowl and a half shaft with moulded base and capital supporting a half-octagonal stone shelf. Chamfered rear arches appear in the nave and chamfered rear arches with bar stops in the chancel.

The church contains mainly 19th-century fittings. A low stone reredos consists of a quatrefoil band above the altar shelf flanked by pairs of blind trefoil arches on shafts with moulded bases and capitals, with quatrefoil panels in the spandrels. A 19th-century wooden altar has blind trefoil arches. Wrought-iron and brass altar rails and a low stone screen with moulded base and top complete the chancel furnishings. A wooden lectern and a polygonal wooden pulpit with blind traceried panels and stone steps are also present. Wooden choir stalls and pews line the nave; some front pews incorporate possibly reworked medieval traceried panels, possibly from a former screen. A 12th-century circular stone font has wide bands of incised-triangular ornament to the bowl, mouldings and chevron ornament to the base, a 19th-century step and a 19th-century iron-bound wooden cover. A 20th-century organ sits on a timber superstructure at the west end. An old iron-bound chest stands in the vestry.

The church contains 19th-century stained glass in the east and south windows of the chancel and in the nave windows. Several monuments are present, including a brass to Thomas Tesdale, an alabaster wall monument to Maud Tesdale (died 19 June 1616) and her husband (died 1610) with two opposed kneeling figures under round arches flanking free-standing unfluted Corinthian columns supporting a frieze and cornice, a shield with scrollwork above and a gadrooned base on brackets with an inscription between; a marble tablet to Frances Sackville Lloyd Wheate Esq. (died 19 September 1812) with free-standing unfluted columns supporting a frieze and cornice and a shield flanked by scrolls above; and a marble Gothic wall monument to the Reverend William May (died 12 August 1845).

The church stands adjacent to Glympton Park. The village, of which the church once formed the centre, was moved to the south-east when the park was created, probably in the early to mid-17th century.