Church Of St Mary

SE 4843-4943 TADCASTER WEST KIRKGATE (east side)

8/118 Church of St Mary

GV II*

Church. Early C14-early C15, taken down in 1875-77, re-erected and raised 1.25 metres to make safe from floods. Magnesian limestone ashlar with Welsh slate roof. 3-stage west tower, 3-bay aisled nave, south porch, 2-bay aisled chancel. Tower. Diagonal buttresses with off-sets surmounted by pinnacles. Round-arched west doorway in moulded surround under hood-moulds with headstops. Above a 5-light window with recut panel tracery under hood- mould with angel stops. South side has badly weathered canopied niche for statue which breaks first floor band. Second stage band. Twin 2-light bell openings to each side with small buttreses with offsets rising between each pair supported by griffins and surmounted by pinnacles battlements and pinnacles. South porch. Diagonal buttresses with offsets surmounted by pinnacles. Pointed arch on double-chamfered surround under hood-mould. Pointed doorway in double-chamfered surround. Nave and aisles. Chamfered plinth. To south aisle and north and south nave clerestory, buttresses to each bay with off-sets surmounted by pinnacles. To north aisle the buttresses are single storey. Windows: straight-headed, 3-trefoiled lights. String course with gargoyles and battlements. Chancel. Similar buttresses, battlements and pinnacles to nave. Mainly 3-light, straight-headed windows with Perpendicular tracery, those to south aisle under hood-moulds decorated with badly-weathered fleurons. Pointed doorways to both aisles, to south one under hood-mould, another under re-used Perpendicular traceried window head. One single light window to south aisle. 5-light windows with Perpendicular tracery to east end of chancel and to east end of south aisle. Interior. Nave has north arcade of c1300 with circular piers with moulded capitals and recut double-chamfered arches. To west end of south aisle, a re-erected Norman arch with single order of nook shafts with decorated capitals and chevron moulding to the head, with 2-light trefoil-headed window inset. Chancel: double-chamfered arcade to south aisle with fleurons to easternmost arch and on the capitals of the octagonal piers and responds. 2 double-chamfered arches to north. Stained glass: remains of medieval glass to west end of south nave aisle. In the east window, Morris glass of c1875-80. South aisle east window by Powell Bros. of Leeds, c1890. North nave aisle, westernmost by Adam and Small of Glasgow, c1879. N Pevsner, North Yorkshire: The West Riding, 1979, p 507.

Listing NGR: SE4859343507