Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin

Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin

An Anglican parish church on Church Road, Yate, dating from the 12th century but substantially remodelled in the 13th century and altered in the late 14th and 15th centuries. It was restored in 1859 (interior) and 1879 (chancel) by R. Nevill, with further restoration of the stair turret and tower parapet in 1896–97 by W.D. Caröe. The church comprises a west tower, north aisle, nave and south porch, north and south transepts, chancel, and north and south (Lady) chapels. It is constructed of random and coursed sandstone rubble with oolitic limestone freestone dressings and stone slate roofs. A 20th-century addition was made to the north side.

The west tower is in Perpendicular style, rising through three stages with diagonal buttresses. It features a pierced and embattled parapet of 1897 with corner and central crocketted pinnacles, the central ones rising from the head of an ogee cusped canopied niche between two-light mullioned and transomed windows on the second stage. The third stage has similar windows with pierced quatrefoils above, while the first stage has four-light windows to the west, blank elsewhere. A 19th-century west door with moulded surround, square dripmould, and carved stone has been inserted. A polygonal stair turret dates to 1879 and stands at the north-east corner.

The north aisle features two three-light square-headed Perpendicular windows with cusped traceried heads and mouchettes, under drip moulds. The north transept contains a window similar to the west window. The chancel has windows matching those of the north aisle, with a four-light east window featuring cusped tracery heads, and a priest's door with moulded surround and four-centred head. The south transept has a four-light window matching the chancel's east window and a heavily restored 12th-century window in its west wall.

The south porch has a roll-moulded, round-headed door surround with two Perpendicular image niches above. A 15th-century south door stands in a heavily moulded surround. The porch roof, dating to the 19th century, is constructed as a two-bay arch-braced collar-beam structure.

Internally, the church has a four-bay north arcade. The eastern bay occupies the space of a former central tower, whose collapse appears to have necessitated the rebuilding of the two eastern bays, which feature Perpendicular piers with wave mouldings between engaged columns with circular capitals. The west respond of the second bay rests on a 13th-century pier, and the two westernmost bays are 13th-century with keel-moulded piers and coarsely cut floriate capitals. The two-bay chancel has piers similar to the two western bays of the arcade. The chancel arch and arches to the transepts are Perpendicular in style.

A 15th-century octagonal font with quatrefoils around the bowl survives. Wall paintings include a fragment of St Christopher and a water mill to the west of the north door. Reassembled fragments of medieval glass are located in the north chapel, and remains of a rood stair are visible in the north-west corner of the north chapel. Other fittings are modern and plain.

Monuments include a brass to Alexander Staples (died 1590) with two wives and eleven children in the south chapel. In the north chapel is a marble tablet with entablature to Richard Hill (died 1755), featuring a flat pyramid background with drapery swag and urn finial. The south transept holds a square marble tablet with entablature and draped urn to Thomas Stokes (died 1786) by Reeves of Bath. An ogee-headed piscina is located in the north chapel, and a four-centre-headed piscina in the chancel.