Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade II listed building in the Mole Valley local planning authority area, England. Church.
Church of St Mary the Virgin
- WRENN ID
- western-balcony-falcon
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Mole Valley
- Constituency
- Dorking and Horley MP: Chris Coghlan (LD)
- Country
- England
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Mary the Virgin, Church Lane, Headley
- OS grid reference
- TQ 205 548
- Coordinates
- 51.28012, -0.27358
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a 19th-century church located in Headley. The nave and chancel were built in 1855 by A. Salvin, and the tower was added in 1859 by G. E. Street. The church is constructed of flint rubble, coursed on the nave, with stone and rendered dressings, and knapped flint on the tower and chancel. The roofs are slate, with a wood-shingled, broach spire over the tower.
The church comprises a west tower, a nave with a south porch, and an east chancel with a north vestry. The three-stage tower has angle quoins and diagonal, offset buttresses to the lower stage, with roll moulding on the angles of the upper stages. Foliate-cap shafts are on the angles of the upper part of the buttresses. Each face of the top stage features a squat, two-light louvred window, with foliate ends to the impost string course. Central quatrefoil and trefoil heads with two-step reveals are present on the openings, with two quatrefoil panels on each face of the upper stage. The west face of the tower has a clock face beneath a single fixed casement on either side, and a two-light window with a cinque-foil roundel below a hood mould which continues as a string course to the sides. A double door is set within a dog-tooth moulding, complete with foliate end stops. Jamb shafts with portrait heads and foliage roll mouldings flank the double west doors. Lancet windows, paired and single, are set within chamfered surrounds on the buttressed nave, with paired lancets under hood moulds and a sill string course on the chancel. Crucifixes are located at the gable apexes of both the nave and chancel. The chancel is buttressed and features a five-light, Decorated style east window. The gabled porch to the south has a hood moulding and a chamfered surround to a replacement studded door.
The interior features an arched braced roof and panelled walls. There is a glazed tower arch and a panelled chancel roof, with cross ribs and bosses in the eastern two bays. Coved and billeted eaves are present in the chancel, decorated with rosettes. Fittings include 19th-century elements, a piscina to the south side of the chancel, a simple panelled pulpit, and a church font with an octagonal bowl on a wider plinth, topped with a turreted font cover and spherical finial.
Local climate
Church of St Mary the Virgin sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 740 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 76% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 68% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 38 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 71% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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