Church Of St Mary

An Anglican parish church at Norton Prior's Norton, consisting of a 13th-century chancel with Decorated features in the nave, a Perpendicular west tower, and a timber-framed porch. The building was substantially restored in 1875-1876 by the architects Waller and Christian.

Materials and Construction

The chancel, vestry, and nave are constructed in blue lias with limestone buttresses. The tower is built in limestone. The porch is timber-framed with brick infill. The roof is covered in red tile and stone slate.

Plan and Layout

The church comprises a nave with a porch projecting from the centre of the south front, a chancel with a 19th-century vestry on the north side, and a west tower with a projecting stair turret at its north-east corner. The chancel is fitted with clamp buttresses.

Chancel

The south wall features a 19th-century plank priest's door with a flat-chamfered pointed surround, with single lights expanded on either side to form triangular spandrels. A monument set in the wall to the right of the door commemorates Robert Marston, who died in 1708. It is constructed in sandstone with a heraldic shield at the top flanked by faces of winged cherubs, swags on either side, and a skull and cross-bones at the bottom. A two-light window to the right has trefoil-headed lights. The east window is of Early English style (restored), with two trefoil-headed lights flanked by engaged columns and a quatrefoil set in a roundel at the top. The north wall of the vestry contains a 19th-century two-light window with a relieving arch and a 19th-century plank door within a shouldered surround in the right-hand wall, with a single trefoil-headed light window further right.

Nave

The north wall has two pointed two-light windows with trefoil-headed lights and quatrefoils; the right-hand window is 19th-century, and the left-hand window is partly restored. A central plank south door is set within a Decorated cinquefoil-headed cusped surround. The south wall has two pointed windows with cinquefoil-headed lights and Perpendicular tracery, one on either side of the porch. The tracery and hood over the right-hand window are original; the left-hand window is 19th-century. A single clamp buttress stands at the far right, with a sundial featuring a metal gnomon.

Tower

The tower is three stages high with diagonal buttresses, a plinth with moulded capping, and strings between each stage. The west face has a 19th-century double door within a hollow-moulded surround, topped with a hollow-moulded hood with eroded stops. Above this is a three-light window with Perpendicular tracery (restored) and a hood with scroll-ended stops. The third stage has two-light belfry windows with cusped heads and hoods with geometric stops, with large winged angel stops to the hood over the north-facing window. A carved stone face with an open mouth is incorporated into the lower string course. The south side of the second stage has a two-light window with trefoil-headed ogee cusping in a rectangular surround. The parapet is battlemented with a moulded string below featuring gargoyles offset from the corners, including one depicting a skirted man playing a musical instrument.

Porch

The porch is a gabled 19th-to-20th-century timber-framed structure with central double plank doors and single frosted lights either side. A stone roundel with foliate carving is positioned towards the apex of the gable above. A 19th-century plank door with strap hinges is set within a Decorated cinquefoil-headed ogee cusped surround, matching that on the north side.

Interior

The nave has opposing north and south doorways. A tall 14th-century double-chamfered pointed arch opens to the tower, with two corbels against the west wall of the nave bearing painted stencilled decoration depicting flowers within a crown. An early plank door with cover strips is set within a flat-chamfered four-centred arched doorway from the tower to the stair turret. A trefoil-headed ogee cusped piscina is positioned to the left of the pulpit. An asymmetrical double-chamfered pointed chancel arch, probably 14th-century, separates the nave from the chancel. A 19th-century pointed arch connects the chancel to the vestry. The priest's door in the south wall is 19th-century. The nave is roofed with a 19th-century four-and-a-half bay arch-braced roof with a brattished tie and octagonal king post. The chancel has a 19th-century roof with seven facets. The nave floor is of plain tile, while the chancel and sanctuary contain some decorative encaustic tiling.

Fittings and Monuments

An octagonal stone font on an octagonal base is positioned adjacent to the south door. A 19th-century wooden octagonal pulpit stands in the north-east corner of the nave, and a 19th-century carved wooden lectern in the form of an angel is on the opposite side. A 19th-century railing separates the nave from the chancel and sanctuary, with painted cast iron foliate supports.

On the north wall of the nave is a limestone monument to Richard Browne (died 1636) and his son Richard (died 1715), featuring a decorative scrollwork frame with a heraldic shield at the top, lion's head and angel head decoration. The south wall displays a white on black marble monument to Richard Butt (died 1848). An eroded slate stone ledger with a heraldic shield at the top is positioned within the tower.