Church Of Saint Mary

Church of Saint Mary

A substantial parish church of primarily late 14th-century date, though incorporating significant earlier fragments. The building stands on Church Street in Limington and retains work from the Norman period through to the 19th-century restoration of its chancel.

The church comprises a two-cell plan with a two-bay chancel and four-bay nave, to which have been added a North chapel, South porch, and West tower. Construction is predominantly of local stone, mostly cut, squared and random coursed, with Ham stone dressings. The roofs are plain clay tile with coped gables, except over the North chapel which features large stone slabs covering a stone vault.

The chancel, fundamentally 15th-century but restored in the 19th century, is of near-ashlar stonework with a plinth and corner offset buttresses rising almost to full height. An eaves coving course runs around its perimeter. The East window is a four-light tracery window of the late 15th century in a hollow chamfered recess without label, set within a sub-arcuated frame. Matching two-light windows occupy the North and South sides. Between the South windows stands a plain doorway with a four-centre moulded arch and moulded jambs. Inside, the chancel is unplastered and retains an apparently 19th-century ribbed barrel vault in timber. A cusped trefoil-arched piscina survives, and the chancel arch dates to circa 1380.

The nave has slight plinth full-height buttresses and an eaves course. The South side features a 14th-century curvilinear tracery two-light window with a relieving arch and no label. The South porch has a segmental pointed arch and is followed by a four-light hollow chamfer mullioned window of circa 1500 with traces of a relieving arch over the label, and a small single-light window probably of the 16th century. The North side displays a two-light plate tracery window with two quatrefoils and one octofoil within circles, dating to the late 13th century, and a blocked semi-circular arched doorway. The nave is plastered and retains 19th-century crown post roof trusses. An arch to the North chapel dates to 1328, and the tower arch, possibly circa 1280, features grotesque figures to its capital and corbel brackets.

The North chapel, a fine example of 1328, has a plinth, angled corner buttresses rising almost to full height, and intermediate buttresses at cill height. Its windows are all of 14th-century curvilinear tracery: a three-light window to the North and two-light windows to the East and West. Above the North window is a trefoil-arched statue niche, and the East wall contains a blocked four-centre arched doorway. Inside, the North chapel features a ribbed stone barrel vault, pointed rere-arches to the North and West windows, and a fine cinquefoil cusped-arched niche in the North wall, together with a simple piscina. Four good effigies survive here, including traces of colouring. They commemorate Sir Richard Gyvernay, the chapel's builder who died in 1329, his son, and his second wife.

The West tower is composed of three stages marked by string courses. The West doorway has a simple pointed chamfer arch, above which sits a three-light window of the late 15th century. At the second level is a smaller two-light West window, and similar windows face each cardinal direction at the third level, fitted with pierced stone baffles. Above these are small pierced roundels with curvilinear tracery. A low parapet with gargoyles at the corners crowns the structure. A stair turret with slit windows on the North side is surmounted by a weathervane.

Inside the South porch are stone seats and a pointed arch doorway of the 13th century. The door itself is possibly 14th-century and retains old ironwork and lock.

The church contains a notable collection of fittings. These include an early 17th-century altar table, 14th-century popyhead choirstalls, a 17th-century pulpit, and an octagonal panelled font of the early 16th century. Three fine incised 18th-century memorial slabs are set in the tower. The six bells, the earliest of 15th-century date, were lowered in March 1983.

The recorded rectors of this church extend back to 1215. Thomas Wolsey, later Cardinal, held the living from 1500 to 1509, though he probably ceased residence here after becoming chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1501.