Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Shrewton

An Anglican parish church, now redundant, consisting of medieval and post-medieval fabric with substantial 17th-century rebuilding and Victorian restoration. The church comprises a nave with south aisle, south transept, chancel, west tower and north porch.

The building dates from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with major 17th-century rebuilding of the nave, tower, chancel and south transept. It underwent restoration in 1843 and again in 1846 by T. H. Wyatt and D. Brandon, with further work in 1699 by Sir Stephen Fox and 1852.

Externally, the walls are constructed of limestone and flint chequerwork, with a flint rubble tower later rebuilt in ashlar. The roof is tiled and slated. The gabled north porch dates to 1603 and features diagonal buttresses with coped verges and a Tudor-arched doorway with cyma and hollow mouldings.

The nave has a deep moulded plinth. To the right is a 3-light cusped square-headed window with hoodmould; to the left are a 4-light square-headed window and a 2-light cusped square-headed window, both with hoodmoulds. The nave parapet has saddleback coping. The chancel has two lancets on the north side with matching parapet, three 19th-century lancets to the east end, and on the south side a chamfered pointed priest's doorway with planked door, flanked by lancets. The mid-17th-century south transept has a 2-light cusped square-headed window with hoodmould on its east wall; the south side has a 2-light 19th-century pointed window with hoodmould.

The south aisle features a blocked Tudor-arched doorway to the right, one 3-light and one 2-light cusped 16th-style windows with hoodmoulds, and a single lancet at its west end. The 3-stage tower retains 13th-century walling on the north side; the remainder was rebuilt in 1637. A 2-light cusped square-headed window opens to the west. The bell stage, reached by a string course, has 2-light cusped pointed windows with stone louvres on the north, south and west faces, and a shallow-pitched roof.

The interior porch of 1603 features a pointed barrel-vaulted ceiling with plaster ribs and rose bosses, and a pointed chamfered inner doorway with a fine planked door fitted with strap hinges. The 5-bay nave has a pointed barrel-vaulted roof; the north wall dates to 1603, as evidenced by a dated corbel, while the curved principals derive from the 1843 repair. A double-chamfered tower arch is set beneath a panel with strapwork and the date 1637, marking the tower rebuilding. The 5-bay south arcade comprises pointed double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers; the two western bays are early 14th-century, the remainder 15th-century, with the nave itself rebuilt in 1846.

The south transept has a pointed roof and incorporates reset 17th-century communion rails with alternate splat and turned balusters, serving as a partition. The chancel arch dates to 1846. The chancel roof is 3-bays with collars and cusped wind-braces, the result of 17th-century restoration work. A pointed piscina on the south wall bears triple roll-moulding. A Gothic wooden altar screen dates to the mid-19th century. The 1843 pews, 1846 font and pulpit, and an unsigned stained-glass window of 1871 in the east window are also present.

Notable monuments include pedimented marble wall tablets on the north side of the nave to Richard Woodroffe (died 1692) and a pedimented painted limestone tablet on the south side to Joseph Gilbert (died 1759). The chancel contains a classical marble tablet to John Maton (died 1827) and a Gothic tablet to Leonard Pitt Maton (died 1858).

The church is now maintained by the Redundant Churches Fund.