Church Of St Mary The Virgin

STURMINSTER MARSHALL ST 90 SE CHURCH STREET 4/62 Church of St Mary 18.3.55 The Virgin - II* Parish church. C12, with C13 extensions, C14 and C15 changes, tower rebuilt 1805, and substantial restoration of 1859, by Henry Woodyer. Walls of ironstone rubble, with limestone dressings; plinth, stepped buttresses, hood-moulds. Tile roof. Continuous nave and chancel, with wide north aisle continuing into a chapel (with a small vestry of 1859 at its east end), south porch (mostly 1859), and west tower (the upper part of 1859). All the windows are 'Decorated' or 'Perpendicular', of the restoration date, with a lancet opening into a tall sedilia. The tower is of three stages, with weathered offsets, flat corner buttresses, a crenellated parapet and corner pinnacles. Inside, apart from the Norman arcade on later square columns, the features are all Victorian; there is a tall wood screen, plaster-barrel vaults to nave and aisle, a pulpit with an ogee base, a 'Norman' font, and a series of monuments, floor slabs and brasses (mostly C19) and a C17 helm. The chancel has three stained glass windows by John Hardman & Co. The porch has some earlier parts and opens onto a Tudor south doorway; it accommodates two medieval coffin slabs. RCHM

Listing NGR: ST9512100402