Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

This Grade II* listed building stands on the west side of High Street. Built in 1754 to designs by William and David Hiorne, the church was restored in 1875-79 by J H Hakewill and refurbished in 1910-11.

The church is constructed largely of ironstone ashlar with slate roofs, while the tower is faced in limestone ashlar. It follows a simple plan: an unaisled nave with a west tower and south porch, with a very shallow chancel.

The exterior is wholly classical in the mid-18th-century style, though later alterations have modified its appearance. The nave's north and south facades are designed in three bays, with the central bay on each side breaking forward slightly and rising to a shallow pediment. The facades are divided into three horizontal sections by a strongly defined plinth, string course, and dentil cornice. The original 18th-century windows were replaced in the 1870s with neo-Romanesque windows of two lights with nook shafts. A faux-medieval south porch was added at the same time, with a door matching the new windows and replacing the original 18th-century south door. The north door is blocked by a 19th-century window. The east gable of the nave is expressed as a pediment with a dentil cornice; the cornice and strings continue around the chancel. The very shallow chancel has a Venetian east window, the side lights of which were blocked in 1910-11, and a hipped roof.

The most striking and least altered feature is the elegant west tower, designed in the style of James Gibbs. The square lower stage repeats the high plinth, intermediate string course, and cornice of the nave. The second stage, breaking the nave roof, is of limestone and contains a tall round-headed west window in 18th-century style. Above this rises a slim octagonal stage surrounded by a peristyle of eight Tuscan columns supporting a cornice and curved buttresses leading to the tall octagonal spire. The buttresses once supported vases, which have been removed, presumably by Hakewill. The spire is topped with an iron weathervane.

The interior walls are plastered and painted, with a flat ceiling having a cornice. A plain round arch leads into the sanctuary recess. An 18th-century gallery was removed during the 1870s refurbishment and the church was reseated. In 1910-11 the church was further modified, with the sanctuary lengthened into the nave on a shallow platform. The sanctuary floor is paved in marble, and the walls are partly panelled with 18th-century panelling.

The principal fixtures include a 19th-century Gothic-style font and a timber pulpit with blind arcading. Some fine 18th and 19th-century wall tablets are preserved in the nave, including monuments to Francis Brownsmith (died 1778) and Theophilus Goodfellow, rector (died 1782), both by William Cox Senior.

A medieval church dedicated to the Assumption previously stood on this site, described by Bridges in his history of Northamptonshire as having had a chancel and aisled nave. By 1753 it was found to be greatly decayed and was demolished the following year. The present building was erected in "a plain, decent, and commodious manner, without unnecessary ornament", probably designed by William (c. 1712-1776) and David (1715-58) Hiorne of Warwick, described by Colvin as "the leading architects and master builders of Warwick in the middle of the eighteenth century". The attribution rests on an advertisement in the Northampton Mercury of 31 March 1755 offering for sale "All the OLD LEAD belonging to Great-Houghton Church", instructing purchasers to apply to "Mr David Hiorn, or Mr Smith, his Foreman, at Great Houghton aforesaid", which may suggest David Hiorne's role as architect, though it is difficult to distinguish between the brothers as designers. William Hiorne trained as a mason and David as a carpenter and joiner; they worked for the Smiths of Warwick in the 1740s before establishing themselves. Their architectural style is characterized as "Palladian or in a simple, almost styleless, Georgian which they managed to invest with elegance". The Hiornes' two other churches were similarly classical in style. A late 18th or early 19th-century engraving shows the central bay with a six-panelled south door in a surround with a cornice on brackets, and a Diocletian window above it, an arrangement reminiscent of the west front of the Hiernes' contemporary church at Daventry.

The Georgian church was substantially altered in 1875-79 by J H Hakewill (1810-80), who inserted neo-Romanesque windows in the nave and added a new Romanesque-style south porch. His proposed more extensive additions of an apse and organ loft, and the removal of the nave ceiling, were never carried out. Further restoration took place in the early 20th century when the side lights of the east window were blocked.