Church of St Mary the Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

This is a cruciform church of 12th-century origin, substantially rebuilt in the mid-13th century, with early 14th-century chapels added to the north transept and the west end of the north aisle. The south transept was enlarged in the 15th century. The building was comprehensively restored between 1865 and 1869 by G.E. Street. It is constructed in coursed and uncoursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and is roofed in gabled stone slate. The plan comprises a tower over the crossing, an aisled nave, and aisled transepts.

The chancel features hood moulds linked to a string course above a mid-13th-century east window of graduated triple lancets. The north side has three mid-13th-century lancets and a 15th-century three-light Perpendicular window. The south side displays two similar lancets above a 13th-century pointed chamfered doorway, with a south chapel containing a similar door and lancet, along with a 15th-century restored three-light Perpendicular window.

The north transept displays considerable architectural richness. Its east side contains a mid-13th-century lancet, a 15th-century offset buttress, an early 14th-century three-light curvilinear window, and a Perpendicular three-light window largely rebuilt in the 20th century. The north end features early 14th-century corner buttresses with cusped and ogee-headed statue niches, and a fine seven-light curvilinear north window. The west side has a three-light curvilinear window, a similar three-light window to the aisle, and a 15th-century square-headed two-light window. An early 14th-century corbel table runs along the entire transept, carved with heads of beasts and humans. The 15th-century clerestory contains two two-light windows to the east, with gargoyles beneath the parapet.

The south transept features two mid-13th-century lancets on its east side, a blocked 12th-century round-arched chamfered doorway, and a blocked 13th-century double-chamfered archway to a former chapel. Offset buttresses support the wall. The fine 15th-century Perpendicular south window has five lights and transomed construction. The west aisle displays a 15th-century three-light window with panel tracery to the south, and similar windows to the north bay and west chapel. A sundial is set in the south-west cornice. The 15th-century parapet features gargoyles to both aisle and transept, and the clerestory has quatrefoil lights. Steps in the south-east corner lead to a 13th-century doorway of a stair-turret to the tower over the crossing.

The bell-stage has triplets of roll-moulded lancets, with corner pinnacles supporting an octagonal ribbed spire. The spire is decorated with gabled lucarnes containing louvred two-light plate-tracery windows, and is surmounted by crouching figures.

The late 12th-century north porch has a chamfered round arch of four orders with jamb shafts bearing stiff-leaf capitals. Above it stands a gabled 15th-century room with trefoiled lights flanking a canopied statue niche. A round-arched doorway to the east of the porch is blocked by a 15th-century chapel. Gargoyles project beneath the parapet.

Interior

The church contains a canopied reredos with marble figures by Clayton and Bell, dated 1884, along with a piscina and sedilia by G.E. Street, 1865–67. The mid-13th-century tower arches feature chamfered construction of three orders.

The north transept contains two 13th-century rere-arches with bell capitals to shafts, and a blocked chamfered doorway with red and blue colouring to the east. One east window was rebuilt in the 15th century and has a reredos beneath it with three cusped ogee recesses above a quatrefoil band. A 16th or 17th-century parish chest stands here. A rebated aumbry lies to the west, adjacent to a 13th-century two-bay arcade of double-chamfered arches. The west chapel of the transept has a 15th-century doorway, a plank door to a chamber over the porch, and a reredos of three ogee recesses, one containing a 20th-century statue of St George. Thirteenth-century scalloped corbels and 15th-century corbels of crouching figures support a mid-19th-century tie-beam roof.

The south transept features shafted rere-arches to two mid-13th-century east windows. A rebated aumbry, a blocked early 13th-century pointed-chamfered doorway, and a mid-13th-century roll-moulded piscina are also present. A three-bay arcade to the west aisle has 13th-century double-chamfered archways to the north and a 15th-century archway to the south. A 15th-century four-centred archway opens to the west chapel. The south transept and aisle feature five-bay tie-beam roofs with quartered and moulded beams.

The nave contains a pulpit, lectern, pews, and font designed by G.E. Street, 1865–67. Four-bay 13th-century arcades of double-chamfered archways run along the sides. A 15th-century five-bay tie-beam roof, restored, has quartered and moulded tie-beams. The north aisle has a 19th-century roof resting on early 14th-century head and shield corbels. A two-bay arcade of double-chamfered construction in the early 14th-century style connects to the north chapel. A fine early 15th-century screen features open and blind traceried panels divided by an openwork band of quatrefoils. The south transept displays a restored 15th-century roof with moulded beams and an ashlar plate, supported by 14th and 15th-century head and shield corbels.

Monuments

The crossing contains a mid-19th-century wall tablet and a marble memorial by Grimsley to Edward Augustine Batt, d. 1853, depicting the Good Samaritan. The south chapel holds 18th and 19th-century wall tablets, a tomb chest with quatrefoils enclosed in lozenges around the sides, and a Purbeck marble slab bearing brasses of Richard Wennan (d. 1501) and his two wives. A brass to Richard Ashcombe, d. 1606, is located in the chancel. Fourteenth-century effigies of a man and woman stand in the north transept. The north-west chapel contains a 14th-century effigy of an ecclesiastic and a wall monument to Sir Francis Wenman (d. 1680) in the rustic Baroque style, featuring an oval panel set in an open pedimented aedicule surmounted by a crest and carved with swags, strapwork, and cherubs.

Stained Glass

Mid-19th-century memorial glass fills most windows. The east window, by Clayton and Bell (1879), and the west window, by Wailes (1867), are notable examples.