Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Woodford

This is a church of medieval origin, begun in the mid-12th century with significant development in the early and mid-13th centuries and the 14th century. The chancel was reconstructed in the 19th century. The building is constructed of regularly coursed and squared coursed limestone and ironstone, with lead and Collyweston slate roofs.

The church comprises an aisled nave with chancel, north and south porches, and a west tower.

The chancel has a south elevation of three bays. To the right are three 4-light Perpendicular windows with 4-centred heads; to the left is one 2-light 19th-century window. A small 19th-century south door sits centrally. Two-stage ashlar buttresses stand between the bays, with a gabled roof topped by ashlar gable parapets and finials. The north elevation contains one 19th-century 2-light window. A 19th-century vestry is attached to the right, with north and east windows and a lean-to roof featuring ashlar parapets and a lateral ashlar stack. A 19th-century triple lancet east window lights the chancel.

The south aisle has five bays with a 4-window range: three 4-light Perpendicular windows with 4-centred heads to the right and one 3-light window with segmental head to the far left. Two-stage ashlar buttresses separate the bays, and a lean-to roof with ashlar parapets covers the aisle. A 3-light Perpendicular east window and 3-light west window pierce the east and west ends. The second bay from the left projects as a lean-to porch with an attached minor transept. The outer arch is of 14th-century style with roll moulding and cluster shafts. The inner doorway has similar styling with a trefoil head, roll moulding decorated with leaves, and a niche above. A 14th or 15th-century panelled and studded door with tracery hangs in the opening, which is covered by a quadripartite rib vault.

The north aisle has seven bays with a 6-window range. The central window is 2-light with square head; flanking windows are 3-light Perpendicular openings with 4-centred heads. A lean-to roof with ashlar gable parapets and corner gargoyles covers the aisle. A 2-light west window lights the western end. A 14th-century gabled porch stands to the right, with roll-moulded inner and outer arch openings and corner shafts to the inner doorway.

The nave clerestory contains a 5-window range, probably of two phases with a break between the third and fourth windows to the east. The windows are 2-light with square heads, some with renewed tracery. A shallow gabled roof with plain ashlar parapets covers the clerestory.

The west tower is of mid-13th-century date and rises in three stages with subdivision to the lower stage. Shallow 2-stage angle buttresses are present only to the lower stage, each pair with a carved face at the corner apex. A lancet pierces the west face of the lower stage; a similar lancet appears on the north face of the second stage. The bell chamber has 2-light openings with one order of shafts. A trefoil frieze corbelled out with carved heads sits above, topped by a plain parapet. Ribbed pinnacles rise at the corners. A 14th-century ashlar broach spire rises behind the parapet, featuring three tiers of lucarnes.

Interior

The interior has a 6-bay north arcade and 5-bay south arcade. The north arcade, of around 1200, comprises unmoulded round arches on circular piers. Three piers to the west have leaf capitals; one to the east is decorated with nailhead ornament. The two easternmost bays originally separated the former chancel from former chapels. The south arcade is of 13th and 14th-century date, with three arches to the west having double chamfered mouldings and circular and octagonal piers, and two arches to the east with double hollow chamfers and a circular pier. Chamfered and pointed chancel arch mouldings appear at the traditional position. Similar arches mark the positions of former chancel and chapel openings at the mid-point of the nave. The tower arch has triple chamfering and pointed head. A minor transept to the left of the south door contains a double-chamfered arch and quatrefoil pier built into the wall; a similar blocked arch sits to the left of the adjacent aisle window. These features are said to form part of an aisled south transept that was never completed.

Some tie beams and purlins in the nave and south aisle roofs are original; the remainder date to the 19th century. An arched opening combined with the south-west window of the south aisle originally provided access to a parvis room. An arch-head tomb recess sits in the south aisle.

The chancel retains a piscina and triple sedilia to the right of the altar. The north and south walls of the chancel display 3 and 4 bays respectively of blind arcading with detached cluster shafts. Nineteenth-century organ pipes are set in an arched opening above. A stair turret to a former rood loft is accessed from the north-east corner of the south aisle.

An octagonal font with central column and five detached shafts, restored in the 19th century, stands in the nave. A 19th-century stone screen stands at the chancel steps. Nineteenth-century furnishings are present throughout.

Monuments

A chest tomb lies to the left of the chancel arch beneath a 4-centred arch, containing two recumbent wooden figures of Sir Walter Trayli (died 1290) and his wife. A marble tablet in the south aisle commemorates Charles Arbuthenot (died 1850). A partially legible early 19th-century tablet adorns the north wall of the south aisle. A relict built into a north aisle pier is said to be the embalmed heart of either Roger de Kirton or Walter Trayli.

Stained Glass

Fragments of medieval glass survive in the north-east window of the south aisle. Late 19th and 20th-century glass lights the chancel south-east and east windows, two north aisle windows, and the south aisle east and south-east windows. The latter two windows are probably by Kempe.