Church Of St Mary

TARRANT CRAWFORD ST 90 SW 5/25 Church of St Mary 26.6.53 GV I

Parish church, C12 chancel, C13 nave and refenestration, porch and further refenestration C15, tower and nave roof early C16. Flint and rubble, in part banded with ashlar dressings, part rendered. Tiled and stone-slate roofs. Plan: nave; chancel; west tower, north porch. West tower; unbuttressed, of 2 stages, separated by weathered strings; 2-light pointed west window with Y tracery; 2-light Perpendicular, square-headed belfry windows with returns from parapet string which serves as a label; embattled parapet. Nave and chancel have mainly C13 2-light, trefoiled windows. The north nave has 2 Perpendiular tracery 2 and 3-light windows under squared heads, that to the west with a stopped label. The east window is of 3 graduated lancets under a common pointed head. South chancel wall has a blocked C12 doorway with a rebuilt, pointed head. The south nave wall has a C13 chamfered, pointed doorway, now blocked. North doorway is of a similar pattern. The porch has a pointed arch of 2 chamfered orders dying into the responds.

Interior features: pointed tower arch of one chamfered order dying into responds; C16 wagon roof with arched braced trusses and chamfered wall-plates to nave; C19 collar-beam truss to chancel; late C17 communion rails with turned balusters; C17 panelling reset as dado in chancel; altar flanked by 2 reset C13 coffin lids; other C13 coffin lids reused in other parts of the church; C17 octagonal pulpit with 2 levels of panelling and chip carved guilloche frieze; pews of reused C17 moulded panelling; early C14 wall paintings one set depicting acts of St Margaret of Antioch and another an allegory of three living and three dead plus other smaller fragments; 2 medieval piscinae; C16 square font on square pedestal with C16 pyramidal timber cover; reset medieval chancels with slip decoration in chancel; some C15 glass.

A very unspoilt church retaining many medieval features. (RCHM, Dorset, vol.IV, p.86/7, no.1. Newman, J and Pevsner, N. The Buildings of England; Dorset, 1972, p.416.)

Listing NGR: ST9229803471