Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Calne

A substantial cruciform church of limestone ashlar and rubble with stone slate and lead roof. The building spans multiple centuries, beginning with a Norman nave constructed around 1160-70. The late 14th-century St Edmund's Chapel was added to the north, followed by a north porch around 1470. The clerestory and nave roof date to the late 15th century. The tower, chancel and crossing were rebuilt around 1638 after the former crossing tower and spire fell in that year, destroying the chancel. The west end, south porch, chapel and south transept were rebuilt in 1864 and the church was restored in the same year by the architect Slater. The architectural style is predominantly Perpendicular Gothic, with the exception of the 17th-century Gothic Survival tower and chancel, and the 19th-century Perpendicular Gothic Revival work.

The plan comprises an aisled nave with north and south porches and chapels, a north transept tower, and a chancel with north chapel, vestry and south chapel.

The rubble chancel features angle buttresses, plinth and low parapet, with a 19th-century four-centre arched five-light window and 2-light 17th-century mullion windows on each side with labels. The side chapels have three-light east windows. The north-east vestry, built in the mid-19th century, displays a crenellated parapet and two-centre arched north doorway. The north elevation of the north chapel contains two three-light flat-headed windows with labels.

The four-stage tower has setback buttresses with attached pinnacles on the offsets, deeply moulded plinth and crenellated parapet with corner pinnacles. A three-centre arched north door retains its original plank and batten door with hood. Above this is a three-light window with intersecting tracery. Two-light Y-tracery windows, paired to the belfry, feature to the sides; the east side has a blind second-stage window and a clock to the third stage in a lozenge moulding.

The nave, aisles and porches have cornices and moulded crenellated parapets with corner crocketed pinnacles. The nave displays continuous moulding and pinnacles to attached buttresses between windows. St Edmund's Chapel is divided into two bays by buttresses and features two-light trefoil-headed windows and a small doorway across the angle with the tower. Two gargoyles project from the cornice.

The gabled north porch has a two-centre arched doorway with hood mould and cusped octagonal stops. Inside is a good lierne vault with foliate bosses and a timber boss to the pendant. The church doorway has a hollow moulded surround with shield hood stops, and a smaller similar entrance serves the north chapel. The two-bay aisle contains wide three-light flat-headed windows and a four-centre arched three-light west window. The clerestory has five bays, each with three-light windows.

The gabled west end displays a 19th-century five-light window similar to the east end, with a canopied statue niche in the gable above. A 17th-century two-centre arched doorway in a label with shields in the spandrels has a ribbed two-leaf door.

The south aisle and clerestory mirror those on the north. The 19th-century south porch has attached columns with moulded capitals and three good 15th-century gargoyles to the east side. The two-bay south chapel and gabled south transept have setback buttresses and a two-centre arched window. The ashlar south chancel chapel contains two flat-headed three-light 17th-century windows.

The interior includes a chancel with 17th-century timber roof featuring moulded ties and arch bracing to corbels. A 19th-century piscina and sedilia have attached pinnacles. The two-bay open sides feature Tuscan columns and responds to the chancel arch, with round arches, responds to four-centre chapel west arches and crossing.

The nave contains a mid-12th-century Transitional arcade with round columns. A mid-17th-century rebuilt wide flat-shaft section has responds at the east end with scallop capitals and square bases. The east arches are two-centred; the remainder have round arches with a single step and nail-head hood moulds. Five 12th-century columns line the north side; the first from the east has a carved corner head to the capital, some with beads to the scallops and billet hood moulds. West responds exist; two of the south columns were rebuilt in the 19th century. A 12th-century, probably reset, two-centre arch to the north porch door features chevron moulding and billet mould. A good shallow 15th-century tie beam roof displays alternate king posts on king and bishop head corbels with Perpendicular tracery and plain ties with cresting on the principal rafter.

Fittings include a fine chest dated 1579 with "QER/XXI" inscribed on the inside of the lid and three early 17th-century locks, set within a large oak trunk. A 15th-century octagonal font with curved base and panelled sides with quatrefoil heads stands in the nave. The south chapel contains a reset 15th-century piscina with cinquefoil head. A 19th-century pulpit features the twelve Apostles to the sides. The 1890 reredos by Pearson was lowered in 1936. The organ case and altar in the south chapel were designed by C.R. Ashbee and made by Alec Miller of the Campden Guild in 1907. Mid-19th-century bench pews furnish the nave.

Monuments include a wall tablet to William Norborne (died 1659) and a wall tablet to Benedict John Angell (died 1836). Reset in the south porch are three wall tablets to Boswell, King of the Gypsies, featuring a central horse relief.

The rebuilding of the tower and chancel in 1638 represents a notable example of Gothic Survival work. Inigo Jones is anecdotally associated with this phase and is reported to have surveyed the old tower around 1640.