Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a parish church at Stanton Drew, possibly dating from the 13th century but substantially rebuilt and remodelled in the 19th century. The church is constructed of limestone and sandstone rubble with limestone dressings and slate roofs with raised coped verges and some double Roman tiles.

The building comprises a nave, north tower, north porch, north east chapel, wide south aisle, south chapel, and chancel. The architectural detailing is predominantly 19th-century Decorated and Perpendicular styles, though some earlier work survives.

The nave was rebuilt in 1848 and has a 3-light west window with hood mould and relieving arch. The west gable end of the south aisle displays a 4-light window of different 19th-century date. The nave features a plinth, cill string course, kneelers and cross finials to gables, and weathered angle buttresses. On the north side are two late 18th-century stone monuments with carved Ionic pilasters and pediments. A 19th-century gargoyle sits on the eaves cornice and stack, and there is a small 20th-century flat-roofed addition.

The three-stage tower is built of random sandstone rubble at the first stage, coursed above, with angle buttresses rising to the first stage and diagonal buttresses rising further to pinnacles. A south west stair turret features lancets, mask corbels, and a stone pyramidal roof with stones inset at the top with bead mouldings, probably a 19th-century rebuilding. The second stage on the north has a cusped lancet and clock above a string course. The third stage displays two-light bell-openings with louvres and sandstone relieving arches, with a moulded string featuring gargoyles, and an embattled parapet with an image niche to the east. The tower parapet is built of coursed rubble with limestone ashlar.

The two-storey gabled porch has a pointed arched door with convex and concave mouldings, and small paired lancets above with cusped heads and hood mould. It features small diagonal buttresses. The north chapel, built in 15th-century Perpendicular style with the same stonework as the base of the tower, has a 19th-century 3-light east window and lancet above, a similar north window, plinth, weathered angle buttresses, and an eaves cornice with two gargoyles to the north. The east gable end has a shallow pitch and an embattled parapet with a north east pinnacle. The chancel rainwater head is dated 1880.

The four-bay south aisle has three 3-light 19th-century windows and one 2-light window, weathered buttresses, plinth and eaves cornice with gargoyles. The one-bay south chapel has a 3-light south window of 19th-century date with a 4-centred arched head, a 3-light east window with pointed arch and hood mould, and a cross finial. The chancel has a 4-light east window with two central lancets taller than the others, hood mould, a round-headed north priest's door with convex moulding (formerly a window), and a relieving arch remaining.

Interior

The nave has an 11-bay 19th-century roof of principal rafters, arched-braces and collar, with a wall plate. A tall pointed arch to the tower features two broad concave mouldings to the jambs and two convex mouldings to the arch, with 19th-century screen doors and 20th-century upper glazing. A tall pointed arch to the north chapel has similar but narrower mouldings to the jambs and two narrower stepped convex mouldings to the arch. The north rood stair has a glazed lower opening and an upper door with hollow-chamfered surround and 4-centred arch, together with a stone newel stair in the wall. A four-bay south arcade has piers with plinth, two concave mouldings on each side, and pointed arches with two convex mouldings. A wide pointed arch to the chancel has similar mouldings.

The tower has a Perpendicular image niche to the south and a 4-centred arched west door (blocked), a tall pointed arch to the chapel with similar mouldings to the nave arch, and a 20th-century glazed screen. The porch has a ceiled roof (as the tower), stone benches, a surround to the door with thin mouldings, and an ogee gable with pinnacles left and right; the tower wall is cut back to accommodate the doorway, with a heavy moulded string on each side and 19th-century doors. The north chapel formerly had a wider east window; the moulded head remains above the 19th-century surround. The south aisle has a similar 19th-century 11-bay roof and a pointed arch to the south chapel as in the south arcade. The south chapel has a 19th-century common rafter roof with collars and braces, a stone shelf on the south wall, and a similar pointed arch to the chancel. The chancel has a similar 4-bay 19th-century roof.

Fittings

The font in the nave has a circular bowl on a circular base with four attached demi-shafts. A late 19th-century stone pulpit stands in the south aisle. The tower contains Royal Arms erected by church wardens Thomas Wight Preston and John Fear in 1818, a hatchment recording gifts to the parish, and an 18th-century hatchment with pediment recording Mrs. Lyde's gifts in 1772. A board records a grant from the Incorporated Society for Church Building in 1848.

The nave contains a stone monument with carved Ionic pilasters and broken pediment to Elizabeth Adams (1768), a marble tablet with draped urn to John Kernan (1804) by Foster of Bristol, a marble tablet with illegible name (1778), and a marble tablet with draped urn to Alexander Adams (1811) by Lancaster of Bristol.

The north chapel contains four fine monuments: a marble monument with pilasters on a gadrooned plinth, segmental pediment and antlered deer crest to Annamaria Lyde (1729/30) by Michael Sidnell; a similar stone monument on brackets with cherubs and broken segmental pediment to Cornelius Lyde (1717) by Sidnell; a similar marble monument to James Lyde (1731) by Sidnell; and a marble monument with pediment and fluted finial to Michael Foster (1763).

The south aisle contains a marble tablet to James Williams (1795) by Tyley of Bristol, a marble tablet to Joseph Bush (1824) by H. Wood of Bristol, a marble sarcophagus tablet to Elizabeth Visme (1828), and a stone and marble monument with cherub (upper part missing) to James Hopkins (1730). The south chapel has a stone monument with carved Ionic pilasters, cherubs, flowers and broken pediment to Samuel Prigg, vicar (died 1739/40), erected by his grandson in 1777. The chancel contains a slate and marble monument to Peter Coates (1791) by Jones and Co., Bristol, and two marble tablets by Hird of Bristol to Peter Coates (1831) and Rebecca Coates (1817).

Much remodelling took place in 1889 and 1897, particularly to the interior.