Church Of St Mary, St Katherine And All Saints

Church of St Mary, St Katherine and All Saints

A priory church and Anglican parish church built between 1352 and 1361 for William of Edington, Bishop of Winchester. The building underwent restoration in 1888-91 by C.E. Ponting. It is constructed in limestone ashlar with lead roofs and rainwater goods.

The church is an aisled cruciform structure with a south porch. The porch is three storeys tall with diagonal buttresses and a moulded pointed doorway with hoodmould. The first floor has a 2-light square-headed window with cusped lights; the second floor has a tall 2-light window. The sides contain single and 2-light chamfered lights. The porch has a battlemented parapet and a pair of ashlar octagonal chimney stacks on the roof, with a polygonal stair turret attached to the north-west angle.

The south aisle displays three 3-light segmental-headed windows with cusped lights to the left of the porch and four matching windows to the right. All roof parapets are battlemented. The clerestory contains six 3-light segmental-headed cusped windows.

The south transept features a tall 2-light pointed Perpendicular window to the west and a polygonal stair turret with a sundial on the south-west angle. It has 3-light pointed Perpendicular windows on the south and east sides, an ogee-shaped gable behind the parapet, and an angle buttress on the south-east corner carried up to a pinnacle.

The south side of the chancel has three 3-light Perpendicular windows and a segmental-headed priest's door. Large buttresses with crocketed pinnacles support this side, and the cornice to the parapet contains fine gargoyles. A large 5-light Perpendicular east window dominates the east end. The north side of the chancel has three 3-light windows and a central blocked doorway with a cusped canopy.

The north transept contains a doorway and 3-light window on the east side, crocketed angle buttresses, a 3-light window to the north with four 17th-century shell-headed niches below, and a polygonal stair turret to the north-west angle. A tall 2-light window faces west. Evidence of former monastic buildings survives against the north side of the transept and aisle.

The north aisle has a large Tudor-arched doorway to the left and six 3-light segmental-headed windows set high on the wall to the right, with six similar windows in the clerestory above. The west end has a pair of cusped-headed doors with Perpendicular blind tracery above and a large 8-light Perpendicular window. The aisles at the west end have 2-light windows with geometric Decorated tracery.

The crossing tower has a polygonal stair turret on the south-west angle, a string course to the bellstage with 2-light geometric Decorated louvred windows, and a battlemented parapet.

Interior

The porch interior has a lierne-vaulted ceiling on attached shafts with stone benches and a ribbed door to the stairs. The inner doorway is moulded and pointed.

The nave has an original six-bay kingpost roof with 17th-century cusped plaster panels. Six-bay arcades feature moulded pointed arches on compound piers. The aisle roofs are restored lean-to structures. Consecration crosses mark the interior walls.

The south transept has a two-bay kingpost roof with cusping, narrow stairs door, and a fine 15th-century Baynton monument against the south wall.

The Lady Chapel in the north transept has a plaster ceiling with cusped panels dating to 1663, a cusped piscina, and a crocketed niche. It contains a 17th-century reredos and communion rails.

The crossing has a late 18th-century plaster fan-vault on wide pointed arches and a marble floor.

An early 16th-century screen and loft separate the chancel, with the east side and top restored by Ponting. The chancel has a 1789 plaster ceiling, crocketed image niches on the walls (only two retain statues), a crocketed south doorway, and a partly damaged three-seat sedilia and piscina on the south wall. A fine 17th-century communion rail with dogbars and strapwork is preserved.

Fittings

A 15th-century octagonal stone font base in the north aisle was reset in the 19th century with a marble bowl and plinth. A 17th-century cover sits above. The base stands on a 19th-century mosaic floor.

A 17th-century pulpit with tester has 1890s stairs in 18th-century style. Pews date to around 1890. Eighteenth-century brass candelabra are distributed throughout the church.

Stained glass from the 14th century is retained in the clerestory windows and the east window of the Lady Chapel. Some 19th-century glass is present in the chancel.

Fittings from Imber Church of St Giles include an altar in the north aisle, a 1639 Royal Arms, and two 14th-century knight effigies, one in a cusped ogee niche, now in the south aisle. An 1852 benefactions board hangs in the north aisle.

Monuments

The Lady Chapel contains a collection of 18th and 19th-century marble wall tablets, including several to the Long family of Baynton House. The chancel contains a grey marble monument by Chantrey to Sir Simon Taylor (died 1815) and a fine Lewis monument erected by Lady Anne Beauchamp to Sir Edward Lewis (died 1632). A 15th-century Cheney monument occupies a bay in the south arcade.

Historical Context

William of Edington founded a chantry here in 1351, and the foundation was transferred to the Bonhommes in 1358. The church represents one of the most important examples of early Perpendicular architecture.