Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This parish church in Luccombe has a complex building history spanning from circa 1300 to the late 19th century. The chancel dates to around 1300, with the nave and tower added around 1450, and a south aisle added around 1530. A gallery was installed between 1752 and 1756 but removed in 1840 when the church underwent restoration and a vestry was added. Further restoration work was undertaken in 1895, when some earlier restoration was removed and the church was restored and reseated by Edmund Buckle.

The exterior is constructed of roughcast, except for the squared red sandstone vestry and the random rubble red sandstone tower. The roofs are slate. The building comprises a four-bay nave and one-bay chancel without division, a four-bay south aisle, a north porch, a west tower, and a north east vestry. The three-stage crenellated tower is unbuttressed and features gargoyles and string courses. The bell-openings are two-light with trefoil heads and hood mould, louvred. Above these sits a trefoil-headed lancet above a three-light west window. The west door has a moulded pointed arch head. A crenellated stair turret occupies the south east corner. The south aisle features a two-light ogee-headed mullioned window at its west end with buttresses, and four three-light windows that were renewed in the 19th century. A blocked Tudor arch-headed doorway is present. The east end has two four-light windows with cinquefoil heads and a three-light east window. The chancel has a lancet on its south wall and is buttressed. A lancet appears on the north front. The vestry has a two-light window with a priest's door. The north porch, which is single storey and gabled, contains two and three-light windows to its left, diagonal buttresses, a moulded pointed arch opening, and a lancet on its returns. The interior has an open wagon roof, partly renewed, with remains of a holy water stoup on the right and a pair of lugged holy water stoups flanking the inner door, installed in 1975. An empty niche stands above these, with a three-light window to its right.

The interior is whitewashed. There is no chancel arch. A Perpendicular pointed tower arch is present, with a 20th-century roof above the tower. The chancel, nave, and aisle have ceiled wagon roofs with bosses and wallplates. A Perpendicular arcade is present, with capitals carved with vineleaves and shields. A moulded piscina exists in the south aisle, a chamfered trefoil-headed piscina in the chancel, and trefoil-headed single-bay sedilia in the chancel. Two irregularly placed brackets in the east wall of the aisle are cut into the moulded jambs of the rood stair opening.

The church contains remains of early 16th-century English and Flemish glass, which was removed during the 1840 restoration and reset in the east window of the aisle in 1935. Late 19th-century pastel-tinted glass fills the aisle, with the east window dated 1885. An early 16th-century table tomb of Ham stone stands in the south aisle, flat-topped and carved with leaves, flowers, and shields. It has been suggested that this was originally an Easter sepulchre. A Perpendicular octagonal font is present, with a crocketed pyramid font cover of circa 1840, raised by a pulley attached to the jamb of the tower arch.

The furnishings and monuments include a Jacobean pulpit, a 17th-century chair, and a fine brass to William Harrison, died 1615, positioned in front of the chancel. A marble tablet with broken pediment and alabaster coat of arms commemorates Elizabeth Stawell, died 1731. A neo-classical tablet to the Reverend Robert Freke Gould, died 1839, features amphorae in its surround. An early 17th-century tablet with segmental pediment and Ionic columns and an apron with a skull commemorates Richard Worth. A slate tablet to Henry Byam, died 1665, is inscribed in Latin with details of his eventful life, has a bolection-moulded surround, a coat of arms above, and a skull below.