Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A church dating from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with the chancel partly rebuilt in 1833 and general restoration work carried out in the later 19th century. The building is constructed of coursed squared limestone and ironstone with ironstone dressings, and has copper, lead and slate roofs. The chancel is partly rendered.

The church comprises a chancel, vestry, nave with north and south aisles, porches and a west tower.

The chancel has a 4-light Perpendicular east window with hood mould, and 2-light windows to the north and south with Y-tracery beneath continuous hood moulds. A vestry stands to the north-east with a single-light window to the north with hood mould. The priest's door to the north features a moulded arch on shafts with moulded capitals, and a datestone above inscribed 'REBUILT 1833'. The chancel has a chamfered plinth, diagonal offset buttresses, offset buttresses flanking the priest's door and another to the south, a string course and plain ironstone parapet with stone coping.

The nave has a low stone-coped east gable. The north aisle contains a 3-light Perpendicular east window with 4-centred head and hood mould, similar windows to the north, and a 2-light west window with Y-tracery and hood mould. A double hollow-chamfered north door has a hood mould and label stops. The north porch has a moulded doorway with round-arched head, small rectangular blocked windows to east and west, a tile roof and stone-coped gable with kneelers.

The south aisle has 3-light Perpendicular windows to the east and south with depressed arch heads and hood moulds. A double hollow-chamfered south door is set within a gabled south porch. The porch doorway has a moulded wood surround and timber lintel, small rectangular windows to east and west, and a sundial in the gable.

The 3-stage west tower has a moulded west door with a 3-light Perpendicular window above, both with hood moulds. The middle stage to the north displays an octagonal timber clock face with timber hood mould. The tower contains 2-light bell-openings with quatrefoiled heads and hood moulds, and a tall battlemented parapet with angle pinnacles. Diagonal buttresses flank the tower and north aisle.

Interior features include three arches behind the altar in the chancel with ogee heads and pierced cusps, showing traces of original colour. A renewed piscina and stone brackets are set either side of the east window. The chancel arch is double-chamfered with semi-circular responds and shafts to the west side. The north shaft has a moulded capital and the south shaft a stiff-leaf capital. A pinnacled niche is set diagonally in the angle between the arch and south arcade.

The 3-bay nave has double-chamfered arches, round-arched to the north on circular piers with moulded capitals, and pointed arches to the south on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. The south and east end of the north aisle have polygonal responds.

The south aisle contains a piscina and a blocked squint with cusped head.

An octagonal font with a bowl decorated with leaf patterns dates probably to the 17th century. A second font with eared projections may be a reused medieval mortar. An original mid-18th-century timber reredos, now positioned at the east end of the south aisle, has painted commandments framed by pilasters with fruit and flower drops.

The church contains good late 19th-century stained glass in the east and west windows. A 16th or early 17th-century painted glass shield appears in the head of a south aisle window. Old crown glass in the chancel windows includes some quarries scratched with names and dates, the earliest being Thomas Parbery, Plumber, dated 1790, and another inscribed Thomas Coles, Wm Sharp, Brackley, May 9 1807.

The church contains several brasses: Thomas Lovett of Astwell Castle, died 1492, and his wife; Constance Butler, died 1499; and Thomas Lovett, died 1542, and his wife, all in the south aisle. In the nave are brasses to a knight of circa 1460, Sir Thomas Filling, Chief Justice, died 1481, and his wife, both originally from Bittlesdon Abbey in Buckinghamshire.