Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Hemingbrough

A cruciform church of magnesian limestone ashlar with a lead roof. The building has late 12th-century origins in the nave and north transept, with substantial additions and modifications spanning the 13th to 15th centuries. The late 13th-century chancel received a 15th-century south chapel and upper stage to the north chapel. The late 13th-century south transept was enlarged in the 15th century, whilst the late 13th-century tower carries a spire built between approximately 1416 and 1446.

The plan comprises an aisled 4-bay nave, a chancel with a 4-bay south aisle, a 3-bay chapter house and vestry to the north, 2-bay north and south transepts, and a crossing beneath the tower and spire.

The nave features buttresses with offsets rising to battlements, and its south aisle incorporates a porch at the third bay with a double-chamfered pointed arch topped by a cross at its apex. The porch doorway is a pointed plank type with roll-moulding beneath a hoodmould, and a head at the apex supports a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary within an ogee-headed niche. The south aisle contains three 3-light windows with reticulated tracery (the westernmost blocked) and one with Perpendicular tracery, plus a 4-light Perpendicular window to the west end.

The north aisle features a blocked round-arched baptismal doorway with moulded surround, 3-light windows with Perpendicular tracery (two straight-headed), and a 5-light straight-headed window at the west end. The west end of the nave has buttresses to half-height, a central pointed plank door with roll-moulded surround, and a 5-light Perpendicular window. Both sides of the nave carry a band with gargoyles and battlements. Clerestory windows throughout are 4-light straight-headed examples with Perpendicular tracery.

The transepts feature predominantly 3-light windows with Perpendicular tracery, some with curvilinear tracery. The south-west side has two tall trefoiled lancets, whilst the transept ends display 5-light Perpendicular windows. The embattled tower has 2-light openings with Y-tracery and carries an octagonal spire.

The chancel's south aisle has plinth and buttresses with offsets to each bay. A 4-centred priest's doorway bears a hollow-chamfered surround with a Lamb and God the Father at the apex, an eroded inscription, and angels in spandrels beneath the hoodmould. The aisle contains 3-light Perpendicular windows and battlements. The north aisle of the chancel has 3-light Perpendicular windows and a 3-trefoiled light window. The east end of the north aisle is reached by a flight of steps leading to a 4-centred entrance with a 4-panel door, a 19th-century pointed window, and a 3-stepped-light window with trefoil heads above. The easternmost bay of the chancel contains a 2-light window with Y-tracery. The east end has angle buttresses with offsets, and a late 13th-century light window with cusped and stepped lancet lights, the outer ones cinque-cusped.

The interior nave arcade stands on cylindrical piers with pointed double-chamfered arches to the two western bays and double-chamfered round arches with roll-moulding to the east. The crossing has pointed double-chamfered arches on trefoil piers. The south aisle has 4-centred arches, whilst the north aisle contains two pointed arches on a cylindrical pier and a pointed arch with fluted responds.

The chancel to its south side has a 4-bay, 4-centred arcade on 4-column piers with decorative capitals. To the north is a pointed arch, followed by a pointed plank door with scroll hinges and above it a blocked 2-light window with Y-tracery.

The furnishings include an arcaded tub font of circa 1200, and a pulpit reportedly dating to 1717 though showing signs of restoration, which is 6-sided with blank arches. Parclose screens enclose the north chancel aisle. Remains of an Elizabethan screen's cresting are now in the north chapel, and Pevsner records four panels from approximately 1520–30 featuring monsters, now in the tower. Stalls with poppy-heads are present, including one misericord with a leaf trail of circa 1200. Bench ends are carved with tracery patterns, one bearing a figure of a jester.

Sculptural features include four head corbels in the south transept and a 15th-century Easter credence with a 2-bay front and traceried panels.

Monuments include a 15th-century cadaver, six medieval grave slabs of provosts of Hemingbrough, a wooden memorial tablet to Dame Lenox Pilkington (died 1706), and the jousting helmet and gauntlets of Sir Roger Pilkington (died circa 1750).