Church Of St Mary

SX 47 NW SYDENHAM DAMEREL SYDENHAM DAMEREL

10/312 Church of St Mary

GV II*

Parish church. C15 tower and porch, the rest of the church rebuilt in the 1950s after a fire, incorporating some medieval fenestration. Granite ashlar tower, dressed granite porch; stone rubble nave and chancel with granite dressings and a slate roof. The 1950s nave and chancel is a narrow single volume under 1 roof. Before the fire the church had a north aisle. The porch and tower are Perpendicular. West tower, nave and chancel, south west porch. Good 3-stage battlemented west tower with tall set back buttresses, an internal north west stair turret with slit windows. The tower has big octagonal corner pinnacles with corbelled out crenellated crocketted finials, a chamfered plinth and moulded strings. There is a chamfered rectangular opening at bellringers' stage on the east face and 2-light traceried belfry openings, 1 to each face. Moulded arched west doorway in a moulded square- headed architrave with a hoodmould with blind quatrefoils carved in the spandrels. A 3-light Perpendicular traceried window above has a hoodmould. The porch has a coped gable and a doorway similar to the west door. The south side has 2 granite ashlar buttresses with set-offs and 3 square-headed cusped windows with hoodmoulds. The north side has 4 arched C15 Perpendicular traceried windows with hoodmoulds. The windows have presumably been reused from the former north aisle, some of the mullions have been replaced. 5 ashlar buttresses to the north side have set-offs. The chancel has a coped east gable with an arched 3-light cusped east window. The coping of the chancel continues along a piece of walling which was the east wall of the former north aisle. 3 good C18 headstones fixed to the east wall. Interior Unplastered walls and a barrel roof with ribs are all of the 1950s. Good moulded granite tower arch springs from moulded capitals on shafts. The octagonal font is C15, the bowl supported on a truncated stem.

Listing NGR: SX4093876005