Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building in the Buckinghamshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 13 July 1966. A Medieval Church. 1 related planning application.
Church of St Mary
- WRENN ID
- tired-balcony-wagtail
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Buckinghamshire
- Constituency
- Buckingham and Bletchley MP: Callum Anderson (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 13 July 1966
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Church of St Mary, Thornton Road, Beachampton, MK19 6DU
- OS grid reference
- SP 770 370
- Coordinates
- 52.0267, -0.87835
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St. Mary is a parish church that dates back to the 14th century, with 15th-century aisles. It underwent significant restoration by G.E. Street between 1873 and 1874. The church features a 19th-century porch, a northern vestry, and an organ chamber. It is constructed from coursed rubble stone, with lead roofs covering the nave and aisles, and a tiled chancel.
The west tower consists of three stages from the 14th century, supported by diagonal buttresses. The second stage on the south side has a round 19th-century traceried light, while the top stage, designed by Street, includes an open balustrade leading to the bell chamber and a shingled spire above. The nave has a parapet and a clerestory featuring three 2-light traceried windows. The aisles contain restored Perpendicular windows with two and three lights, each adorned with flat hood-moulds. The chancel boasts a 19th-century 3-light Decorated east window, two 2-light Decorated windows on the east side walls—one from the 19th century and one in the Perpendicular style—as well as a restored 14th-century doorway on the west side of the south wall.
Inside, the tower and chancel arches are double chamfered on corbels with labels above. The nave, which has three bays, features similar arches on quatrefoil piers with moulded caps. The north wall of the chancel includes an arch leading to the organ and a segmental arch that houses a large monument to Simon Benet. There is a restored piscina in the south wall. The 19th-century glass and fittings include a carved stone reredos with figures in niches.
Notable monuments include a wall tablet made of stone surrounding a brass inscription to Matthew Pigot from 1598, which features primitive imagery of a skull, bones, and shrouded figures with a meandering inscription. There is also a Baroque marble wall monument to Simon Benet, who died in 1682, which has an inscription on a plinth flanked by festoons and volutes, a bust, and a heraldic panel set within a broken segmental pediment, all surrounded by Ionic columns and an outer segmental pediment. Additionally, there are brasses commemorating William Bawdyn, a blacksmith, from 1600 in the north aisle; Ales Baldwyn from 1611 in the south aisle; and a small plaque for William Elmor from 1652 in the nave.
Local climate
Church of St Mary sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 79% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 81% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 52% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- Sale history — 1 transaction since 2022
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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