Parish Church Of St Mary

Parish Church of St Mary

This is a parish church of 15th-century date, substantially refurbished in 1825 by William Burgess, with the chancel restored in 1883 and further restoration work carried out in 1887–9 and 1902. The church is built of Ham Hill stone and Moolham stone ashlar with some blue lias limestone, and has a lead roof. It follows a cruciform plan with a central crossing tower and an east vestry, executed in the Perpendicular style.

EXTERIOR

The church has a string course below a castellated parapet with a moulded border running along the vestry, north sides of the chancel, transepts, aisles, nave and south porch. All windows and doors, unless otherwise noted, are pointed-arched with hoodmoulds and Perpendicular tracery. Buttresses are offset and diagonal to the tops, set back at the corners unless stated otherwise.

The vestry is attached to the east of the chancel, beneath the east window. It has a central door under a hoodmould with carved shields in the spandrels, and gargoyles to the corners and above the door. The south side features a 2-light window with cinquefoil heads under a hoodmould; the north side has a similar 1-light window.

The chancel comprises 3 bays with blue lias limestone walls and buttresses, and Ham Hill stone plinth, parapet and dressings. It has 3-light windows to the sides, a 5-light window to the east gable end, and gargoyles to the corners (though the south-west one has fallen). The central bay on the north side has a door. The gable is topped with a cross-in-circle finial.

The north transept, known as the Wadham Chantry Chapel, is of late 15th-century date and notably ornate. It is 3 bays with a 5-light north window whose mullions to the outer 2 lights curve outward to the architrave to form pointed arches flanking a central non-circular rose-like window of radiating dagger tracery. Tudor-arched 3-light windows to the sides have transoms; the lower lights feature round arches with cinquefoil heads. The buttresses are particularly elaborate, with trefoil-headed panels to each section and bird-like sculptures to the central pair. The parapet features teardrop-shaped panels containing shields and quatrefoils, with square columns below richly crocketed finials. The parapet continues above the north gable with crocketed finials flanking the window arch and another at the apex.

The north aisle is 5 bays with slender 3-light windows. The north porch is single-storey with diagonal buttresses. The south transept is 2 bays with 3-light windows; the south window has 5 lights with a transom. The gable features a pointed string course, gargoyles, and a moulded cornice to the shouldered parapet. The south aisle is 5 bays with slender 3-light windows without dripmoulds. The south porch is taller than the north porch, with diagonal buttresses and a pediment breaking through the cornice. The tympanum has 6 panels with cinquefoil cusping and 6 similar long panels below. The door has a crocketed ogee architrave. The nave is 3 bays with 4-centred-arched clerestory windows of 4 lights.

The west front, dated 1824, has a shallow gable with a pointed string course ending as gargoyles below a pointed shouldered parapet to the gable end, in the apex of which is a gabled niche. The central 20th-century door in a moulded arch sits below a 5-light stained-glass window with cusped ogee arches to each light and tracery above, set in a casement-moulded arch with a run-out dripmould. The buttresses change to diagonal at springer level and have recessed trefoil-head panels at parapet level. The aisles have similar 3-light windows in casement moulding but without dripmoulds; sloping string courses terminate as gargoyles below the castellated parapet.

The tower rises 2 storeys above the nave across 3 bays, with a stair turret to the north-west corner. Bays are articulated by slender buttresses with crocketed finials above the castellated parapet. Each bay on both stages contains a tall 2-light mullioned-and-transomed window with tracery; lights to the top are filled with pierced stonework, whilst those to the base are solid. The stair turret has string courses coinciding with those on the tower and is topped by a spirelet with a weathervane.

INTERIOR

The chancel has window arches with deep casement moulding. The east window contains 5 lights with geometric tracery and 19th-century stained glass, above an elaborate reredos of about 1910 in Caen stone flanked by doors to the vestry. The 3 bays are articulated by engaged columns supporting wooden figures that carry the carved main rafters, between which are moulded trusses with fretted infill. The ridge, main rafters and purlins are moulded and the wall-plate is brattished. The floor, of early 19th-century date, is of coloured marble in a bold geometrical design.

The arches to the central crossing below the tower have trefoil-headed panels. At the corners are shafted columns with round capitals supporting trefoil fan-vaulting, with large squints to each side.

The south transept, called the Lady Chapel, is simple in character. Its principal feature is the Walrond tomb in the south-east corner, dated 1553. This is pedimented, with 3 large circles at the angles containing coats of arms, above a large panel with the Walrond crest flanked by realistically carved skulls. The base has 4 pilasters on a plinth.

The nave arcade was altered in 1825 and has 3 widely set Tudor-style arches supported by the original piers with round capitals to engaged colonnettes. The clerestory has 4-light windows with similar arches, each light having a cinquefoil head. The 19th-century roof has 6 bays; corbels supporting 19th-century trusses rest on colonnettes with 15th-century head-stops to the bases between the arches. The oak-fronted organ loft and choir gallery to the west, dating to about 1900, has billeted and foliate mouldings to the base and open-fretted panels to the top. Four canopied niches contain carved wooden statues.

The north transept, called the Wadham Chapel or St Catherine's Chapel, is separated from the crossing by a Jacobean panelled wooden screen with a double row of bobbin balusters and thin metal spikes to the top. The roof is similar to but more richly carved than that of the chancel.

The principal features are the Wadham tombs. That of Sir William Wadham and his mother is dated 1452 and takes the form of an altar-tomb with a slab of Purbeck marble approximately 3 metres long, bearing fine brasses of canopies, figures and inscriptions, on a plinth surrounded by crocketed ogee-headed niches for weepers. The west end has a damaged tableau of Christ in glory flanked by Sir William and his mother. Sir William is reputed to be the builder of this transept and the tower. The later tomb, dated to Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham (1609 and 1618), is located in the north-east corner and is of alabaster and marble. Above a slab of black marble bearing brasses and inscriptions is a kind of reredos bearing an escutcheon of their arms and a laudatory Latin inscription.

FURNISHINGS

St Catherine's Chapel contains a notable 20-branch candelabra. Other furnishings include 2 polished 8-branched candelabra with inscriptions reading "The gift of Will Raw, Tho. Bayley fecit 1762"; these appear to be cut down from 5 similar ones recorded in 1904. The pulpit is part of a larger Jacobean one. A 19th-century brass lectern is present. The organ was brought from St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol in the 19th century. Two oak chests, probably of 16th or 17th-century date with strap hinges, stand at the east end of the nave. The church contains mid to late 19th-century stained glass.