Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

A church of 14th and 15th-century date with late 12th-century origins, situated on the north side of Church Lane. The building was restored in 1853 by E. F. Law, and further work including a vestry, organ chamber and alterations to the chancel was undertaken by E. Swinfen Harris in 1879, with additional restoration in 1901.

The church is built of coursed squared limestone with lead and copper roofs. Its plan comprises a three-bay chancel, vestry and organ chamber, an aisled nave with north and south porches, and a west tower.

The chancel features a three-light Perpendicular east window, two-light windows to the south with Y-tracery and trefoil heads, and a chamfered priest's door to the south, all with hood moulds. The east gable has a plain stone-coped parapet of ironstone and fine limestone, with a cross probably of 1879 designed by E. Swinfen Harris. The vestry and organ chamber to the north has a three-light east window with straight head and ogee-arched lights, a low gable to the north, and hollow-chamfered stone eaves. An external covered stairway of 1879 on the north side of the chancel, designed to lead to the rood screen gallery door inside the church, features a blocked hollow-chamfered door with four-centred head and hood mould, and three stepped one-light windows with cusped and hollow-chamfered stone surrounds with ogee-arched heads.

The nave has a four-bay clerestory of circular windows with moulded stone surrounds and plain ironstone-coped parapet. A stone dated 1594 in the middle of the south parapet probably records a repair or rebuilding. The north aisle contains a three-light east window with reticulated tracery and similar two-light windows to the north and west, all with hood moulds. The north door has a narrow hollow chamfer and wide inner wave moulding and hood mould, whilst the north porch doorway has hollow chamfer, sunk quadrant moulding and hood mould with label stops. One-light windows flank either side of the porch, each with cusped light, cut spandrels, straight head and hood mould. The south aisle has similar windows to the north aisle except for a three-light east window with Curvilinear tracery and quatrefoil to head and hood mould. Both aisles have hollow-chamfered stone eaves and diagonal offset buttresses. The many-moulded south door has a hood mould and is set in a gabled porch with chamfered doorway and chamfered inner arch on corbels with hood mould.

The three-stage tower has a small Tudor-arched west door with a two-light Decorated window above. Similar larger bell-chamber openings have quatrefoils to their heads and hood moulds. The middle stage has small one-light round-headed windows to the west and south. The tower has a battlemented parapet and set-back offset buttresses, with gargoyles to the middle of the north and south sides.

Interior

The chancel contains a cusped hollow-chamfered piscina and a double-chamfered doorway to the vestry with hood mould and label stops, above which hangs a 19th-century door with fine ornamental hinges. A south door preserves fine 14th-century foliage finials of a former hood mould or reset piece. The roof is largely 19th-century with wall-posts on moulded stone corbels and curved bracing to ties and wall-plate. A double-chamfered chancel arch divides the chancel from the nave.

The nave has five-bay arcades with high moulded bases, double-chamfered piers and arches and thin capital mouldings. A single-stepped pointed tower arch dates to around 1200. The north aisle contains a cusped ogee-arched piscina and a tomb recess with many-moulded arch, pierced cusping and hood mould. A squint connects the chancel to the south aisle, which also has a cusped moulded piscina. Plain image brackets stand to the left of the east windows in both aisles. Good 19th-century tiled floors cover the nave and chancel.

The font has an octagonal plinth, stem and tapered bowl. A Perpendicular rood screen features one-light ogee-arched divisions and panel tracery above. A 17th-century communion rail with fat turned balusters is now used as stall fronts. The reredos dates to 1879 and was designed by Swinfen Harris, featuring a polyptych altarpiece panel probably painted by Nathaniel Westlake.

Monuments

The church contains numerous wall monuments. Richard Lightfoot (d. 1625) is commemorated by a wall monument with brass in a pilastered limestone surround with apron and hour-glass finial. Jane Nailour (d. January 1655/6), daughter and sole heir of Robert Wicken, has a wall monument resembling a small hatchment with coat of arms and inscription in oil on canvas. Mrs Mary Arundell (d. 1676) is recorded by a monument noting her gift of £50 for communion plate and the same towards 'beautifying and repairing' the church, in oil on board. Anna, wife of Francis Arundell (d. 1674), has a wall monument with bolection-moulded slate surround to marble inscription panel. Reverend William Rolfe (d. 1693) is commemorated by a veined marble wall monument. John Blackburn (d. 1719) has a wall monument with bolection-moulded stone surround painted black. John Smith, a merchant in London (d. 1768), is remembered by a wall monument signed by Middleton of Towcester, erected by his executors in memory of his parents, sister and uncle, with limestone surround and slate inscription panel flanked by ornamental volutes and topped with a large urn finial. Reverend Joseph Tordiff (d. 1775) has a veined marble wall monument with urn finial. Members of the Vernon family, beginning with Henrietta Vernon (d. 1796), are recorded by a wall monument in oil on board.