Church of St Mary, Hambleton

Church of St Mary, Hambleton

An Anglican church built in 1881-1882, designed by the prominent architect John Loughborough Pearson. The building is constructed in red brick with ashlar dressings, roofed in red plain clay tiles with cast-iron rainwater goods, and topped by a timber-framed pyramidal bellcote clad in shingles.

The church follows a sub-rectangular plan aligned north-east to south-west. The chancel sits at the liturgical east end with a projecting vestry to its north side. The nave is flanked by projecting aisles either side, with a porch at the south-west corner. The aisle roofs have a shallower pitch than the main body of the church.

Both gable walls are buttressed with pairs of stepped buttresses featuring ashlar dressed plinth steps. The east gable has a raised and coped roof edge crowned by a stone cross. The west window comprises two pairs of paired Decorated Gothic-style windows with ashlar lancet hood moulds and steeply sloping sills. The east window is a tripartite design with reticulated ashlar tracery beneath a single ashlar lancet hood mould. The remainder of the church is lit by various Decorated Gothic-style windows of differing sizes and heights, featuring paired tracery windows. The aisles contain a mixture of three and two-light windows with cushed heads and glazed spandrels beneath stilted hood moulds. The north vestry window differs from others in having an ashlar transom bar. A dark witness mark remains on the north aisle wall where a boiler room was removed. A projecting continuous ashlar string course runs at sill height around the full extent of the church. The side walls are finished with a square-billet brick cornice, and the south aisle wall contains a small stepped buttress. The open-fronted porch is entered through a recessed equilateral arch supported on cylindrical shafts beneath a hood mould. The inner doorway is more elaborate, with a moulded surround featuring cylindrical shafts, ring moulded capitals, and a hood with carved stops, one forming a cross with bell flowers. The door is decorated with iron strapwork and studs. The porch has a red tile floor and a coupled-rafter gabled roof that merges with the south aisle roof. A timber-framed bellcote housing a single bell surmounts the roof above the west gable, with three quatrefoil sound holes per side clad in shingles, forming a simple pyramidal fleche crowned by a metal cross.

Internally, the nave features a central processional aisle opening into side aisles via arcades of pointed brick arches with ashlar hood moulds, springing from circular ashlar pillars with ring moulded capitals and bases. The side walls are topped with a brick square-billet cornice supporting timber ashlar pieces that carry the four-bay arched braced collar roof with moulded butt purlins, collar purlin and tie beams. The easternmost nave truss is positioned tight against the chancel where a chancel arch would normally stand. A continuous ashlar string course runs at sill height around the interior, stepping up on the west wall of the nave and the east wall of the chancel. The floor consists of plain red and black clay tiles in the processional aisle and side aisles, with timber block flooring beneath the pews. The pitch-pine nave pews are arranged in two files of eight, featuring curved detailing and scrolled elbows. The font stands centrally against the west wall of the nave on a stepped stone plinth, with a carved decorated spirelet cover comprising a column with four attached colonettes, showing signs of wear.

The west windows (1882-1883) depict the Baptism of Christ and Christ among the Doctors on the right, and the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple on the left.

The north aisle contains a file of seven pews and a secondary carved timber partition choir vestry at its western end (now serving as a kitchen as of 2021), featuring a small carved statue of the Madonna and child beneath a canopy on its east panel. The eastern end of the aisle features a recessed equilateral brick arch occupied by a carved timber screen with exposed organ pipes above. A marble war memorial panel depicting a tomb flanked by rifles records the names of the Fallen on the north aisle wall. The south aisle has a file of seven pews, with a small memorial chapel at its eastern end containing a stained-glass window above dated 1920. This window, a late work by the significant stained-glass designer and maker Christopher W Whall, depicts a soldier dressed as a knight receiving the Crown of Life, commemorating Lieutenant Harris H Anson, son of the church warden, who was killed during the First World War.

The chancel rises two ashlar stone steps from the nave. A carved wood pulpit stands at the northern end of the chancel steps, with a screened priest's seat at the southern end. Choir stalls flank the red and black tiled processional aisle on either side, carved with poppy heads and rounded elbows. The organ chamber sits to the rear of the northern choir stall beneath a pointed ashlar and brick arch similar to those in the nave. The vestry is a small rectangular room accessed via a lobby at the side of the organ screen. A Conacher organ, made in Huddersfield, was installed in 1885. A sanctuary step rises from the choir and is fitted with a wrought-iron and moulded timber altar rail. Two sedilia are set within the southern wall. A plain brick panel on the east wall forms a simple reredos, with a cross attached to it behind the altar table (1949). A carved oak frieze from 1903-1904 depicts the Agnus Dei flanked by representations of the four evangelists (the angel of St Matthew, the lion of St Mark, the ox of St Luke, and the eagle of St John), resting on the string course and signed on the back by master carver George Walker Milburn. The chancel roof construction parallels the nave with a single arched braced collar truss; the roof directly over the sanctuary has a timber barrel vaulted lining with a lattice of moulded ribs. The east window (1882-1883), designed by Ward and Hughes of Soho Square, London, represents the Agony, Crucifixion and Ascension of Christ with angels within the quatrefoils. The southern wall window (1883) depicts Simon the Cyrenian bearing the cross for Christ.