The Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary, Deerhurst

A former monastery now serving as a parish church, this building represents one of England's most significant Anglo-Saxon religious sites. Construction spans from the 8th to the 14th centuries, with later work in the late 15th and early 17th centuries. The church underwent substantial restoration in 1861–62 by the architect William Slater.

The walls are built of random rubble with herringbone masonry at the lower levels in places, while the west end of the south aisle and lower bays of the north aisle feature coursed, squared stone. The roofs are lead, with stone slate covering part of the tower.

The building comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, and a western tower, with remains of an apse to the east.

The south face displays a diagonally-set buttress to the left and a blocked doorway with a three-centred arch. A Saxon doorway, now partly serving as a window, features a semi-circular head with a hoodmould and a beast head carved above. Eleven corbels project from the wall, marking where a cloister roof once attached. A projecting string course runs for most of the wall's length, forming the sill to four four-light mullioned windows with arched heads. At the east end sits a two-light window with mullion, transom, and Perpendicular tracery. Moulded stone heads—two functioning as rainwater outlets—sit above, with a plain string course and parapet above. The tower rises above the aisle roof on the left side with a flat-headed window at roof level, a circular clock face, a two-light louvred belfry window with reticulated tracery, and a plain parapet with slightly raised corners to the left and short lower eaves to the right. The clerestory is slightly set forward to the right, with three two-light windows—the left one with reticulated tracery, the right two with Perpendicular tracery. A plain eaves parapet runs along with parapet gables to the main roof and aisles, and a stump of an apex finial projects at the east end.

The west face features a four-light Decorated window with a king mullion in the south aisle, topped by a single-light window. Below, to the left, a six-panel door sits atop three stone steps beneath an arched head. The south parapet returns up the slope of the roof. The tower has a 19th-century boarded door with ornamental ironwork in an arched, moulded surround, set slightly off centre beneath a semi-circular arch with an animal head above. A single-light window sits above this, with an altered doorway (now a window) above it featuring a semi-circular head, square hoodmould, and animal head. The window and parapet above match the south facade. To the left, the north aisle features a low plinth and a similar window to the south, with an angled buttress and matching parapet.

The north face presents a plinth with a blocked door in a moulded surround with an arched head. Three-light and four-light Decorated-tracery windows with king mullions occupy the central section, each flanked by two four-light windows. The parapet, clerestory, and tower match the south side but lack a clock face. At the east end, the north aisle has a blocked doorway, with a blocked wide arch to the centre, semi-circular responds and arch, and a three-light Perpendicular-tracery window above with a flat head and relieving arch. A wing wall to the left supports the apse, with projecting strip decoration at the corners carrying a triangular pediment with angel carving. A blocked semi-circular headed opening serves the south aisle, which is partly overlapped by the adjoining Priory Farmhouse. Footings of the apse are visible to the east.

Internally, the tower base displays a low relief carving of the Virgin and Child over a semi-circular headed doorway, with animal-head stops flanking the hoodmould on the opposite side. The nave and chancel form a single unit with rendered walls. The west end features a simple semi-circular headed arch to a doorway with a triangular window above and a tapered, blocked doorway to the right, cut from a single stone. Above these sit two triangular-headed windows separated by a fluted pilaster, with a plaque above. Three bays of 13th-century arcading run along each side, with clustered responds to short wall lengths between each. The capitals feature leaf and trumpet-scalloped decoration, while the arches on the south side alternate between light and darker stones. Two Saxon doorways flank each side of the chancel, with a blocked arch to the apse visible at the east. A Decalogue (Ten Commandments) is painted on the infilled opening.

The chancel retains its rare pre-Laudian arrangement: early 17th-century communion rails with moulded heads and sills, turned balusters, and ball finials; bench seats with panelled, fluted backs flanking the north, east, and south sides; and panelled pew fronts with bookrests and ball finials flanking central openings on each side. Triangular-headed plaques sit at high level on the eastern window's either side.

The roof features king-post trusses with infilled carved tracery, wall posts and braces rising from corbels, one pair of moulded purlins, and a moulded ridge and cornice. The timberwork at the west end dates to the late 15th century; the eastern section is an 1861 copy. The north aisle contains early 17th-century dado panelling and a bench seat at the west end with a fluted frieze. The east end's plaster was removed, exposing various blocked pre-Norman openings and recesses. The south aisle is rendered, with responds for 12th-century arches visible on the north side, a piscina recess to the south, and remains of rood loft stairs and doors. The eastern bay features a semi-circular headed arch with an infilled 19th-century timber screen. Sloping principal rafters serve as trusses with curved braces to wall posts throughout the aisles.

The church contains significant fittings. A 9th-century tub font on a circular base, reduced at the foot to an octagon, bears carved spiral decoration. Fifteenth-century pews occupy the west end of the south aisle with blind tracery ends and moulded upper rails; some ends were reused on mid-19th-century pews, the remainder copied from earlier examples. A semi-octagonal carved wooden pulpit on a stone base, designed by W. Slater in 1861 and carved by Forsyth, stands in the chancel. A Cassey brass from around 1400 sits in the north aisle alongside two later brasses. A stone coffin lid with a foliate cross, mid- to late 18th-century wall monuments at the west end of the north aisle (one with a pedimented top and scrolled sides), and various early to mid-19th-century wall monuments complete the interior fixtures. Medieval glass appears in the west window of the south aisle, whilst an 1853 memorial window by Wailes occupies the west end of the north aisle. Two wooden chests, one with iron strapwork, are also present.

Historical notes record that the apse was demolished by 1547. According to the antiquary Bigland, the spire was blown down in 1666. The eastern clerestory windows were substantially altered during the 1861 restoration, when the chancel roof pitch was lowered and the cross-roof to the south transept was removed.

The church forms an architectural group with the adjoining Priory Farmhouse, Odda's Chapel, and Abbot's Court. Ruined parts of the east end are recorded as Ancient Monument, Gloucestershire 367.