Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St. Mary the Virgin

This is a church of multiple phases spanning the 12th to 16th centuries, substantially restored in the late 19th century. It is constructed in squared coursed limestone with limestone ashlar tower and lead roofs.

The building comprises an aisled nave, chancel, north chapel, north transept and south porch. The chancel features a south elevation with a 3-window range of tall 3-light Perpendicular windows with 4-centred arch heads. A priest door stands to the right, with a 2-stage buttress at the corner. The chancel has a shallow gable roof with castellated ashlar parapet and finial. The east window is a 5-light Perpendicular design with 4-centred arch head. The north elevation of the chancel contains a single 2-light window with Y-tracery, beneath which is an arched recess. The north chapel has a 4-light Perpendicular east window with 4-centred arch head. Its north elevation displays a blocked square-head opening, with a lean-to roof and plain ashlar parapet. A 19th-century vestry is attached to the north chapel, featuring a 2-light north window and doorway in the return wall, both with carved label stops.

The south aisle comprises 4 bays with a 3-window range of 3-light Perpendicular windows with 4-centred arch heads and a lean-to roof with plain ashlar parapets. The west and east windows are of similar 3-light and 4-light Perpendicular design.

The south porch is a 2-storey structure dating to circa 1583 and was built for the Pickering family. It features a roll-moulded outer arch with semi-circular responds and a similarly restored inner doorway with cluster shafts. The first floor has restored 2-light square-head windows to the south and east faces, with a shallow gabled roof, plain ashlar parapet and finial.

The north transept has a 3-light Perpendicular window with 4-centred arch head in its north elevation, with a shallow gabled roof, plain ashlar parapet and finial.

The north aisle is a 2-window range: a 4-light Perpendicular window with mouchettes and 4-centred arch head to the left, and a 3-light Decorated window with intersecting tracery to the right. A 2-light square-head west window lights the aisle, which has a lean-to roof with plain ashlar parapets.

The nave clerestory contains a 5-window range of 3-light Perpendicular windows with 4-centred arch heads, beneath a shallow gabled roof with castellated ashlar parapets and finial.

The fine 15th-century west tower is 4 storeys high with a plinth. It has 3-stage set-back angle buttresses to the lower 3 stages. The plinth bears a quatrefoil frieze, with a double quatrefoil frieze above. The west doorway has a crocketed ogee head with quatrefoils and mouchettes in the spandrels, flanked by pointed-head niches with cusping and 19th-century statues. A quatrefoil frieze separates each stage. The second stage contains a 3-light west window with panel-tracery and flanking niches with pinnacles, occupied by 19th-century statues. The third stage has a blind 2-light west window with transom, flanked by similar niches. Blind windows on the east face and similar windows on the north and south faces have brick infill arranged as lattice panels. The upper stage has pairs of 2-light bell-chamber windows with transoms on each face, also with lattice brick panels. Above these runs a double diamond and quatrefoil frieze with panelled and crocketed pinnacles at the corners. Similar diagonal pinnacles with ogee heads and crocketed castellations stand at the mid-point of each side.

Interior

The nave arcade comprises 3 bays. The north arcade is 13th-century with circular piers and nailhead decoration to the capitals. The south arcade dates to the early to mid-14th century with circular piers and stiff-leaf decoration to the capitals. Both arcades have double-chamfered arches. The chancel arch is double-chamfered with polygonal responds. The tower arch is triple-chamfered with hollowed responds and castellated capitals.

The north side of the chancel has a 2-bay arcade of double-chamfered arches similar to the north arcade of the nave. Double-chamfered arches to the north transept and north chapel have bracketed responds. A priest door in the south wall of the chancel has a 12th-century reset arch head with zig-zag decoration. To the left of the altar is a trefoil-head piscina, with a 19th-century copy to the right. A squint with gabled head and cusping stands alongside, with a priest door between.

The roof structures are 19th and 20th century, though remains of Perpendicular arched-braced trusses with corbels survive in the north transept. The font, pews, early 20th-century screen and pulpit are all 19th or early 20th-century insertions.

Wall paintings in the chancel date to the 19th century. 19th-century stained glass fills all chancel windows, a panel in the south aisle east window, and the belfry window.

The room above the porch, no longer accessible, was originally the private pew of the Pickering family.

Monuments and Memorials

The church contains numerous monuments spanning from the early 18th century onwards. A low tomb recess with decorated slab stands in the south aisle. John Creed (died 1701) is commemorated by a plain tablet below the south aisle east window. Sir John Pickering (died 1703) and family have an inscribed tablet on the north wall of the north chapel with flanking pilasters, pediment and urn. Major Richard Creed (died 1704) and Mrs. Jemima Creed (died 1705) are commemorated by tall inscribed tablets flanking the south aisle east window. John Pickering, who died in infancy in 1712, has a plain chest-tomb in the north chapel.

Theophilus Pickering (died 1710) is depicted in a painted panel in the north chapel showing a bust with flanking pilasters, created by Elizabeth Creed, sister of the deceased. Gilbert Pickering (died 1721) and his wife are recorded on an inscribed panel below this monument. The poet John Dryden and his parents are commemorated by a painted panel in the north transept, dated circa 1722, also by Creed. Various members of the Pickering family are listed on an 18th-century inscribed tablet with scroll surround on the north wall of the north chapel.

Colonel John Creed (died 1751) has an inscribed tablet with pediment and obelisk on the south wall of the south aisle, created by Edward Bingham. Mrs. Elizabeth Creed is commemorated by a white marble urn on a black base in the south aisle window sill, made by J. and J. Coles of Thrapston and Huntingdon. Hugh Richard has a plain oval late 18th-century tablet on the west wall of the south aisle. Two late 19th-century tablets with Gothic surrounds stand on the south wall of the chancel. Various inscribed tablets in the floor include matrices for brass.