Church Of St Mary

BLAKESLEY CHURCH STREET SP6250 (East side) 10/31 Church of St. Mary 17/05/60 (Formerly listed as Church of the Blessed virgin)

GV II*

Church. Tower of c.1300, body of church C14 and C15, early C16 south chancel chapel. Restored 1874. Chancel rebuilt 1897 by firm of Law and Harris. Coursed squared ironstone and limestone, lead roofs, except for plain-tile roofs of chancel and tower. Chancel, vestry and organ chamber, south chancel chapel, nave, north and south aisles, south porch, west tower. 2-bay chancel has 3-light geometrical east window and 2-light Decorated style windows north and south. Blocked, chamfered, priest's door to south; vestry and organ chamber to north, continuing north aisle, with vestry door to east and 3-light Decorated style window to north. South chancel chapel has 3-light arched mullion east window with cut spandrels and similar 4-light window to south. Nave has four-bay clerestory with straight-headed windows with cinquefoil-headed lights and battlemented parapet. North aisle has 2-light straight-headed windows to north with ogee-headed lights and many-moulded north door. South aisle has 2-light straight-headed windows to south with pointed trefoil-headed lights and one-light west window with cinquefoil-headed light. Roll-moulded south door in south porch with double-chamfered doorway, 2-light straight-headed window to east with pointed trefoil-headed lights, and 2-light straight-headed window to west. 3-stage west tower has 3-light Perpendicular west window, one-light chamfered window to west and south stair-turret with ridged stone roof to south-east, 2-light bell-openings with trefoils to heads and cusped heads to lights, corbel table, battlemented parapet and pyramidal roof. Diagonal offset buttresses to west angles of tower and south aisle and chancel chapel, angle offset buttresses to chancel, and buttresses, mostly offset, between bays of north and south aisles. Plain stone-coped parapets to chancel and aisles. Windows and doors all have hood moulds. Interior: chancel has alabaster reredos, and double-chamfered arch to south chancel chapel. Fine Decorated chancel arch with foliage capitals. Nave has 3-bay arcades with continuous double sunk-quadrant mouldings. Tower arch has triple responds, the main one with fillet, and triple hollow-chamfered arch. A blocked door above tower arch with Caernarvon-arched head. Perpendicular roof to nave with moulded ties, ridge and purlins supported on angels making music. C19 stained glass east and west windows. Painted wood table of Kindred and Affinity. Brass to Mathew Swetenham, d.1416, Bowbearer to Henry IV. Painted alabaster wall monument to William Wattes d.1614 with 4 headless kneeling figures in 2 tiers. (Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.106 Kellys Directory for Northamptonshire, 1928; Blakesley Then and Now, P.B. Kingston, 1983, pp. 13-16).

Listing NGR: SP6270550471