Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Anglican parish church dating from around 1200, with significant 13th-century and 15th-century elements, restored in 1872 by Albert Hartshorne. The building stands in Cowley village and comprises a nave with south porch, chancel, and west tower.

The exterior walls are constructed principally in limestone rubble, with the south wall and porch built in coursed squared and dressed limestone. The tower and chancel are ashlar, and the roof is stone slate. The south wall of the nave contains three 19th-century lancet windows, probably replacing earlier similar windows, together with a small trefoil-headed lancet to the far right beside a buttress with offsets. The porch contains a plank doorway with decorative 19th-century hinges within a roll-moulded pointed surround and roll-moulded hood with stops in the form of knights' heads. A large cinquefoil-headed light opens to the left-hand return. The north wall has three probably 19th-century lancets and one early lancet, plus a large buttress-like projection towards the east containing a spiral staircase to the former rood loft.

The chancel features single buttresses with offsets on its north and south sides and a buttressed east end with a single lancet window and a smaller lancet to the apex of the gable. Two lancets, one with a restored head, light the south wall. A 13th-century corbel table with double roll mouldings runs along both the nave and chancel.

The three-stage tower displays Early English work in its lower stages and Perpendicular work in the upper stage. A projecting stair turret on the north side contains a plank door within an angular shouldered surround and a single slit light. A 19th-century plank door with pointed roll-moulded surround sits on the west side of the tower. A single lancet window lights the south side of the tower. Above this sits a square stone slab sundial. The belfry stage has three-light windows with crocketed decoration and a blocked central light; the outer lights have stone slate louvres. Panelled pilasters rise at the tower corners to a string course below a battlemented parapet with panelled corner merlons. The chancel gable is coped with cross finials; the nave and chancel also have cross finials, and the porch has stepped coping and a roll-cross finial.

Interior

The interior is plastered throughout. The nave continues into the chancel, marked by a step. A 14th-century unpanelled wagon roof covers the nave with moulded tie-beams featuring diamond stops. The chancel has 19th-century facetted roof trusses with stencilled flowers and fleur de lys to the soffits of the beams and wallplate. Principal rafters are supported by wall posts rising from Early English style stone wall posts with moulded capitals and bases. A stone string with dog-tooth decoration runs below the wallplate.

A 19th-century plank door at the west end of the nave is set within a roll-moulded surround. Another opening towards the apex of the gable, now with its head obscured, has a roll-moulded and casement-moulded surround. The base of former steps to the rood loft remains towards the east end of the nave, with a small triangular-headed piscina opposite in the south wall.

The chancel contains a 14th-century recumbent stone effigy of a priest with an ogee-curved recess and crocketed finial in the north wall. A projecting corbel with a hole for a light to its upper left suggests the recess may once have served as an Easter sepulchre. A large 19th-century trefoil-headed niche occupies the south wall. The chancel windows, except those lighting the westernmost bay, have roll-moulded rere-arches. Red and black tile flooring covers the nave, while the chancel has ledgers and encaustic tiling.

The church retains a 12th-century circular limestone font with a decorative band of zig-zag motif around its outer margin and traces of incised triangular decoration to its base, now replaced by a 19th-century octagonal stone base. Furnishings include 19th-century pews, choir stalls, and reading desk. A 15th-century stone pulpit, carved from a single block with crudely carved blind tracery, rests on a 19th-century limestone base and steps with wrought-iron railing. A 19th-century communion rail features wrought-iron uprights and wooden railing, with a simple wooden communion table. A 19th-century marble reredos incorporates a mosaic of the Last Supper. An organ stands at the west end of the nave.

Monuments within the chancel include four 17th-century and two 18th-century ledgers, one commemorating Margaret Brett, wife of Henry Brett, died 1645, and another Dame Henrietta Brownlowe, daughter of Henry Brett. Three simple white on black marble monuments stand over the south door. Three circular hanging candelabra, now upturned and fitted with light bulbs, remain in situ. The chancel windows retain 19th-century stained glass.