Church of Saint Mary in Liberty

The Church of Saint Mary in Liberty is an Anglican parish church built of rubble stone with much 19th-century ashlar tracery, and slate roofs with coped gables. The church comprises a nave and chancel, with parallel-roofed north and south aisles, north and south porches, a fine tower at the east end of the south aisle with broach spire, and parallel-roofed northeast and southeast chapels.

West End and Exterior

The west end has three gables with 19th-century coping and finials. The northeast gable shows the line of an older gable below and traces of the original 15th-century segmental-pointed window removed for a large 19th-century five-light window with intersecting tracery, replaced in 1963. A straight joint to the nave shows the line of the head and sill of a lost segmental-pointed west window, replaced by an ornately traceried five-light pointed window of 1869. An odd late 15th-century west door has flattened mouldings and an ogee head, similar to the door on the chantry ruin in the churchyard. An eroded Latin inscription is recorded as "Blessed be God in his gifts." The southwest gable has a cambered arch with stone voussoirs to the left of a restored late 15th-century five-light pointed window with hoodmould. A straight joint to the right of centre shows the line of an earlier narrower south aisle. The southwest angle is chamfered.

The south aisle has large squared grey stones in the lower third of the wall to the left of the porch, up to a straight joint under a four-light window. A tiny 15th-century window to the left has leaf-carved spandrels; there is a blocked square window below, then a big 19th-century four-light pointed window with the jamb and head of the original four-centred arched window to the left. The storeyed 15th-century south porch has an embattled parapet and thin 19th-century ashlar cornice. The large pointed south door and small pointed east and west doors have thin flat mouldings like those of the nave west door and ruined chantry. A sundial in the battlements to the south was restored in 1903. Inside is a rough stone vault, and the south door has 18th-century boarded panelled doors and stone voussoirs to a flat head. A blocked lancet above breaks into the vault. Two similar 19th-century three-light aisle windows are to the right, with 19th-century walling and corbelled eaves. Traces of an old window line appear above the second window. A rectangular blocked opening to the left has an eroded hood. The coped east gable has a lean-to against the recessed tower.

The tower is of coursed brown stone with battered walls. A southwest stair tower in the angle has a plain pointed door and six loops. A blocked chamfered pointed south door has stone voussoirs, with a 19th-century three-light pointed window over, a small pointed lancet at mid-height, and a single long narrow louvred bell-opening on each face to the top stage, with a clock above and a corbelled embattled parapet. A tall recessed Bath stone octagonal spire is broached at the base.

The southeast chapel has a straight joint to the tower, with 19th-century squared grey limestone walls, ashlar windows, and eaves corbels. A small two-light window sits under the eaves to the left, with two large pointed three-light windows. A tiny blocked rectangular opening is at the extreme left.

The southeast vestry dates entirely from 1882–84 and has a steeper pitched roof with moulded coped gables and lower eaves. There is a straight joint, with a door to the left in a flat-headed surround with ornate hinges. The southeast angle is chamfered at ground floor level.

The east end has three coped gables: east and southeast in line, northeast set back. The 1882–84 southeast gable to the left has a tall pointed three-light Perpendicular-style window, and a low flat-headed three-light window with hoodmould below. A straight joint runs to the right except at ground level. The chancel east gable has a shoulder to the right but not to the left, with a medieval relieving arch in the gable over a big 1856 Perpendicular-style five-light window set high. A triangular vent is in the gable apex. The north side has a crude medieval chamfered flat-headed basement window with crude stone voussoirs above; similar stones to the wall on the right may indicate a lost opening. A shelf or lintel projects above and to the left of the window. A step in the wall indicates an earlier wall head, raised in the earlier 15th century; a three-light flat-headed window of 1908 was inserted. The northeast chapel has gable coping and a three-light east window of 1882–84 to match the vestry gable. A straight joint to the right shows where the north wall was rebuilt. The line of the original gable is visible. The northeast chapel has three 19th-century north windows, and the north nave aisle has three similar four-light windows and a north porch, all of 1862–63. Previously the north door was blocked and there were flat-headed 15th-century four-light windows. The 19th-century corbelled eaves are present throughout. The porch has a coped gable, angle buttresses, and a pointed ashlar arch with column shafts. The inner north door has a pointed arch and an inscription to Frances Tuder, who died in 1860. A large buttress at the aisle northeast corner is pierced by a chamfered pointed arch with some medieval stones in the jambs.

Interior

The interior has whitewashed plastered walls with ashlar dressings. Fine 15th-century panelled roofs with moulded ribs and carved diagonally-set square bosses are present throughout. The nave has a roof of 17 by 6 panels with carved bosses and, towards the east end, a 15th-century painted carved figure of Christ surrounded by four angels. The minimal ashlar chancel arch is pointed with continuous mouldings cut into the soffit, dying into the walls. The earlier 15th-century north arcade has five bays with continuous mouldings, a deep hollow with an ogee on each side. The first arch from the east is wider, perhaps replaced. The south arcade of slightly later 15th-century date has column shafts with hollows between, leaf capitals, and ovolo-moulded arches with hoodmoulds and crude carved head stops. More ornate oak-leaf capitals appear on the second arch from the east. The first arch from the east is 19th-century, taller and wider.

The chancel is in two parts: the west end possibly 13th-century, raised and reroofed around 1470 when the chancel was lengthened with a new sanctuary reached by an impressive flight of ten broad stone steps, raised over an undercroft. The later 15th-century roof has 15 by 6 panels on 16 painted timber angel supporters with shields on each side, on stone five-sided corbels. Thick moulded ribs and finely carved bosses are present, some near the east end with the name of Archdeacon John Smith, rector 1461–75, and five replaced, one dated 1856. The west half of the chancel has five plain clerestorey two-light stone-mullion windows with leaded glazing (three to the north and two to the south) that lit a removed first floor chantry. The south side has a plastered pointed arch opening into the tower to the left and a 15th-century two-bay arcade, pointed, with column shafts, hollow-moulded diagonal faces, moulded round capitals with crude leaf carving. The arches are ovolo-hollow-ovolo moulded. A three-bay north arcade to the northeast chapel has column shafts and five-sided capitals, similar to the northeast chapel west arch. Segmental-pointed low arches are of ogee/hollow/ovolo section. The sanctuary, reached up ten steps, has a Tudor-arched south door to the southeast vestry with roll-and-hollow mould with diagonal stop. A blocked south window is to the left.

The north aisle has a 19th-century roof of 13 bays with arch-braced collar trusses. A fine recess with a 15th-century crocketted canopy and finials to the left of the door contains a tomb chest with Gothic panels and an effigy of a cadaver of a priest. To the right of the door is a cruder ogee cusped 15th-century tomb recess and a much damaged fine effigy of a lady, apparently 14th-century. The east arch is column shafted like the north chancel arcade, with five-sided capitals and a hollow mould between the shafts. The pointed arch is of ogee-hollow-ovolo section.

The northeast chapel of St Nicholas has a 19th-century painted panelled roof with 10 by 6 panels.

The south aisle has a broad 15th-century roof of 17 moulded arch-braced collar trusses. A mark of an arched head appears to the left of the west window. The south wall is battered to the right, then stepped back, presumably rebuilt. A deep splayed reveal is at the lancet over the south door, which has a cambered head. A shelf recess is under the third window. The east gable is stepped below eaves level. A pointed plastered arch to the tower has a splayed right jamb within a wider pointed arch also with a splayed jamb. A similar arch is on the tower north side. A small arch-headed recess has a round arch possibly reused. A blank panel marks the entry to the rood-loft stair blocked in the 15th century. The tower base has a high octagonal plastered vault and a blocked southwest door.

The southeast St Thomas Chapel has a 19th-century three-sided panelled ceiling with diagonal boarding. A small opening on corbels under the eaves on the north wall is the lower half of access to the removed chancel loft chapel (the medieval roof was higher). A trefoil-headed medieval piscina is on the south wall. A 19th-century moulded doorcase on the east wall has blind tracery over. A fragment of carved stone in the tower arch with the date 1496 in Arabic numerals comes from the demolished west porch.

The southeast sacristy has a trilobe roof and a moulded fireplace on the left wall.

Fittings

The altar uses a medieval altar slab restored to use in 1889. In the southeast chapel is a big plain octagonal 15th-century font, restored to the church in 1906 from the churchyard. In the north aisle is an ornate ashlar octagonal font by F. A. Walters, 1887, late Gothic with carved panels of the Evangelist symbols and four scenes. An octagonal spired font cover in oak with lucarnes and a dove finial is present. The northeast chapel has a screen moved from the chancel in 1892, by A. P. Dawson, made by Hems of Exeter: Perpendicular-style, five bays with thickly traceried heads. The northeast chapel reredos is early to mid-20th-century carved wood with some gilding and late medieval-style figures of the Annunciation. Rails to the northeast chapel are Gothic timber from 1908. The pulpit dates from 1634, timber, with seven sides each with rusticated arches under shields, one with an angel and date, on a 19th-century base. The lectern is an 1897 brass eagle with oak steps and brass rail. Pews from the 1850s to 1860s were stripped and limed in the 1960s. Ornate oak stalls of 1903 have poppy-head finials, traceried panels, and curved-back seats at the west ends. The organ is from 1869 by Vowles of Bristol. 19th-century boards with the Ten Commandments are in the southeast chapel. Much woodwork in limed oak of the 1960s and later is by Alban Caroe: sanctuary rails and panelling in the chancel and in the northeast chapel, inner south and north porches, wall panelling at the west end, and a screen to the west tower arch.

Monuments

In the northeast chapel, the Scotsborough monument to Margaret, wife of Thomas ap Rees of Scotsborough, who died in 1610, is a fine 17th-century memorial with a recumbent figure of the wife below a kneeling figure of the husband at a prie-dieu, in armour, in a Corinthian columned frame with a panelled cornice and strapwork-framed coat of arms above. The tomb chest has small figures of seven children. The Bishop Tully monument is an ashlar tomb chest to Bishop Robert Tully of St Davids, who died in 1482, with marks of a lost brass effigy and canopy. In the southeast chapel are the White monuments: two chest tombs with effigies to Thomas White, who died in 1482, and his son John, who died around 1507, finely carved figures in contemporary dress. The alabaster chests each have four canopied panels of kneeling figures with shields in the end panels. William Risam, who died in 1633, is shown as a kneeling figure at a prie-dieu, damaged, in a frame of paired columns each with a single Ionic capital. Rodolphus Mercer, who died in 1613, has a tomb chest with a two-panel front and strapwork ornament, and a rear wall plaque with fragmentary framing. An eroded 15th-century female effigy is on the floor. A medieval tomb slab on the west wall has a relief portrait head; the inscription to Isabella Perrot, 1463, was possibly added.

Memorials

In the nave, west end plaques commemorate Lieutenant Colonel E. Voyle, who died in 1834, by Williams of St Florence; Lieutenant Colonel L. E. Bruce, earlier 19th-century neo-Grec, by Rowland of Tenby; William Jones of Croft Terrace, who died in 1850, simple neo-classical, by J. Rogers of Tenby. On the east wall is a memorial to C. Tuder, who died in 1840, simple neo-classical by Lewis of Cheltenham. In the north aisle, a west end plaque commemorates Peggy Davies, bathing woman, who died in the water in 1809, still working aged 82. On the north wall are memorials to J. Ackland of Amroth Castle, who died in 1820, neo-Grec; John Moore of Moorehayes, Devon, who died in 1639, an ornate little alabaster-framed memorial with a scroll pediment. To the right of the porch are memorials to G. Day, who died in 1823, by D. Mainwaring; Bessie Henderson, who died in 1919, a fine tile panel (opus sectile) of Faith flanked by angels, probably by Powell of Whitefriars; Elizabeth Briggs, who died in 1857, Gothic, by Rogers of Tenby. In the northeast chapel are memorials to Harry Morgan, around 1840 by Williams; Thomas Sleeman JP, who died in 1855, neo-Grec by Rogers. A 20th-century plaque below commemorates Colonel James Sleeman, who died in 1889, Chief Superintendent for the Suppression of Thuggee. In the south aisle, from right: John Bennett, who died in 1824; a beaten copper plaque to Dr D. Reid, who died in 1924; Colonel Charles Ferrior, who died in 1863, military uniform draped on a pedestal, by Burke of London. In the west tower arch is a fine Corinthian column memorial of 1737 to Thomas Rogers, who died in 1693. In the aisle east end are memorials to Captain J. Griffiths, who died in 1826, black marble with white urn; Morgan Williams, Chief in Ganjam and Senior in council at Madras, who died in 1790, with pillars and open pediment; Anne Mallory, who died in 1822, neo-Grec, by Tyley of Bristol. In the southeast chapel, east end, are memorials to Captain Bird Allen, who died in 1841, mourning African with Union Jack, by E. Physick; a fine memorial of 1778 to Major R. Lort killed at Fontenoy, urn on grey marble pedestal, by James Gheys; Elizabeth Philipps, who died in 1709, marble with floral panels to piers, cherub heads and skulls; T. and C. Cosby, who died in 1807 and 1808, draped sarcophagus on armorial pedestal, by Tyley of Bristol. On the south wall is a memorial to Elizabeth Johnes, who died in 1730, Baroque stone and slate with drapes and a cornice with standing cherubs. A fine large ashlar memorial to John Philipps, who died in 1733, and Edward Phillips, who died in 1740, has a scroll pediment, ornamented frieze, pilasters with scroll supports, and a shield below. On the west wall are memorials to Rees Price, who died in 1729, ashlar pilastered frame with skulls and hour-glass. The two 18th-century carved portrait roundels above are presumably detached from a monument. Catherine and Grace Hickman, who died in 1828 and 1832, neo-Grec with two urns and a weeping figure at a tomb, by Tyley. A brass with a crude skull commemorates John Sayes, who died in 1693. Peter Price, who died in 1809, plaque with urn by Philipps of Haverfordwest. A memorial to Robert Recorde, 16th-century mathematician, with portrait relief, 1910, by Owen Thomas. Ellen Peel, who died in 1836, pedimented neo-Grec plaque by Rogers of Tenby.

Stained Glass

The west window of 1870 by Clayton & Bell shows a fine Resurrection with five scenes below, given by Mrs Howells of Croft Cottage. In the north aisle: west window has clear glass of 1963; on the north side, the first has mid-20th-century glass by Hardman to the Reed family, Annunciation; the second has exceptional Arts and Crafts glass of around 1920 by Karl Parsons, to Lieutenant-Colonel H. M. Henderson, killed in 1917, showing Christ and a soldier flanked by a warrior angel and female figure; the third has four shields, 1985, by Baker of Weston-Super-Mare. In the northeast chapel: the third window is around 1920 to Helen Knowling, who died in 1916, by Kempe & Co, St Mary; the east window, 1894 by W. G. Taylor, of St Nicholas, to the Morgan family of Greenhill. In the chancel: north, 1908, Arts and Crafts style, three lights with Virgin and Child in the centre, by Karl Parsons, to Reverend G. Huntingdon; east, a fine five-light window, 1856, by Wailes, to Reverend W. Tuder, with ten New and Old Testament scenes on blue grounds and the Crucifixion on red. In the south aisle: west by Kempe & Co, 1921, World War memorial, crucified Christ triumphant and four tiers of figures of angels, saints, and virtues; south side, tiny first window with three female saints, around 1922.