Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is an Anglican parish church with origins in the late 13th century, extensively developed through the 14th and 15th centuries, and restored in 1860 by architect T.H. Wyatt. The building is constructed of flint and limestone in a checkerwork pattern, with an ornamental tiled roof.

The church plan comprises a nave, a south chapel of around 1280, a 14th-century north transept, a two-stage 15th-century north tower with entrance, a north-west vestry, and a chancel.

The north doorway displays a late 13th-century arch with attached shafts, heavily moulded with dogtooth ornament and possibly reset; it is fitted with double doors bearing highly ornamental hinges. The two-stage tower features a two-light Perpendicular window with louvres to the bell stage, a string course, and a battlemented parapet. Adjacent to the tower is a lean-to vestry with a 14th-century ogee-headed lancet and a 19th-century ashlar stack.

The north transept to the left of the tower contains a fine 14th-century three-light window with reticulated tracery and hoodmould, with coped verges to the gabled front. The east side has two chamfered lancets and a blocking course with pierced trefoils. The chancel features three lancets to the north, diagonal buttresses, and a group of three 19th-century stepped lancets to the east under a pointed hoodmould. The south side of the chancel has a chamfered pointed priest's doorway with a lancet on either side.

The south Giffard Chapel boasts a very fine three-light pointed east window with geometric tracery and hoodmould, supported by angle buttresses. The south side displays three restored lancets with hoodmoulds. The west end has a large wheel window containing three quatrefoils and three trefoils with a small blind quatrefoil above. The south side of the nave has a 19th-century window with hoodmould. The west end of the church features a hollow-chamfered Tudor-arched doorway with a square hoodmould bearing carved spandrels and lozenge labels, a 19th-century door with ornamental hinges, and a three-light Perpendicular window above.

Interior

The porch below the tower has a double-chamfered pointed inner doorway and a smaller pointed doorway to the vestry. The nave features a 19th-century four-bay arched-braced collar roof on foliated stone corbels, with flagstone floors throughout. The north transept has a 19th-century two-bay arched-braced collar roof, an ogee-headed piscina on the south wall, and a double ovolo-moulded pointed arch opening to the nave.

The Giffard Chapel contains especially fine 13th-century features, including a trefoiled piscina and three stepped sedilia with attached shafts and moulded pinnacles. The window openings are deeply splayed with trefoil rere-arches. A two-bay double-chamfered arcade separates the chapel from the nave, with slender attached shafts and a 19th-century two-bay arched-braced collar roof with end half-bays. In the centre of the chapel floor is a chest tomb with cinquefoil blind arcading and a moulded top containing Lady Margaret Giffard, who died in 1338. In the arcade is a recumbent effigy of Sir Alexander Giffard, who died in 1250, though this is probably a late 13th-century effigy.

The chancel has a 19th-century scissor rafter roof, a 13th-century trefoiled piscina, and three stepped sedilia with attached shafts similar to those in the chapel. A 19th-century Albany Hatchment decorates the north wall. The east window contains fragments of medieval glass assembled in 1960 and possibly from Salisbury Cathedral. An elaborately carved wooden pulpit with hexagonal sounding board dates to 1964. A 13th-century cylindrical font stands at the west end of the nave. The west window contains stained glass by Horwood of Mells, dating to 1960, which incorporates reset 17th- and 18th-century rondels. The Giffard Chapel glass includes 1860s work in the north chapel. Several wall tablets commemorate the Fane family of Boyton Manor, located in the Giffard Chapel.

The Giffard Chapel was probably founded around 1280 by Walter and Godfrey Giffard, respectively Archbishop and Bishop of York.