Church Of St Mary

Church of St. Mary, Wootton Church Street

This church has probable late Saxon origins but is mainly of mid 13th-century date. The chancel was rebuilt and refenestrated in the early 14th century, and an early 16th-century clerestory was added. The building is constructed of coursed and uncoursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, featuring a gabled stone slate chancel roof and shallow-pitched lead roofs. It comprises a chancel, nave with north aisle and south porch, and a west tower. Extensive restoration took place in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The chancel features a 4-light reticulated east window and a late 13th-century Y-tracery window on the south side (restored in the 20th century). The south side also has a reset 15th-century head corbel, a late 13th-century pointed roll-moulded doorway, and a 14th-century ogee-headed and trefoiled light, with a rood-skair projection to the north.

The 3-bay north aisle has a 19th-century buttress, an early 14th-century Curvilinear 2-light window, and a hood mould over a blocked 2-centred arched doorway. The 3-light east window has an ogee over trefoiled lights with mouchettes in the spandrels. An early 16th-century two-light round-headed window sits to the west.

The south side of the nave has a 19th-century buttress, two early 14th-century Curvilinear 2-light windows, and label moulds over two late 14th or 15th-century two-light ogee-headed windows.

The south porch is a fine Early English composition of mid 13th-century date, with an arch of three orders featuring hollow-chamfered arches set on engaged shafts with bell capitals. It has 16th-century chamfered lights to the side walls and a hood mould over the mid 13th-century pointed moulded south door, which has 19th-century doors. A 1623 sundial is mounted over the porch.

The 3-stage west tower was remodelled in the 15th century and has offset corner buttresses. It features a pointed-arched doorway to the south stair-turret, an early 14th-century curvilinear west window, a 13th-century lancet to the south, 15th-century two-light louvred belfry lights, a 14th-century crenellated parapet with gargoyles and crocketed pinnacles, and a probably late Saxon blocked doorway to the south. Early 16th-century two-light round-headed clerestory windows are positioned around the building.

Interior

The interior contains a mosaic reredos of 1887. A mid 19th-century double-chamfered chancel arch connects the nave and chancel. The mid 13th-century four-bay north arcade features double-chamfered arches set on round piers with moulded capitals. An archway to the east of the arcade dates from the mid or late 19th century.

A late 14th-century octagonal font has convex sides and a moulded base. The chancel roof is arch-braced and dates from the mid or late 19th century. A 17th-century five-bay tiebeam roof with king studs is supported by 15th and early 16th-century anthropomorphic corbels. A 15th-century hollow-chamfered west archway with moulded capitals to the inner order connects the nave to the west tower.

Mid to late 19th-century box pews and a Gothic-style pulpit are also present.

Monuments and Memorials

The church contains several monuments and memorial tablets. In the chancel is a 19th-century memorial tablet to Reverend Charles Lee (died 1841), who endowed Bridge, Parrotts School and Church Cottages. A lozenge-shaped floor memorial dated 1631 is also in the chancel. Additional 17th and 18th-century ledger stones are scattered throughout.

Notable monuments include a Baroque Harris Monument dated 1676 with a segmental pediment to the north. To the south is a broken-pedimented monument with Doric triglyphs and guttae to the base, commemorating Thomas Dee (died 1735). To the east is a pedimented monument with Corinthian pilasters commemorating Charles Crisp (died 1740). A Baroque monument with an urn, swags and skulls commemorates Dorothy and Thomas Crisp (died 1702 and 1701 respectively).

In the nave is a wall tablet with an urn to Reverend John Gregory (died 1800), a stele-type monument to Mary Anne Smallbones (died 1830), and a wall monument surmounted by a crest to Anne Sotham (died 1777).