Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This Grade I listed church is built predominantly of red sandstone rubble, with Victorian work employing more neatly squared stone in varied colours. White limestone dressings are used throughout, particularly for the tower quoins, which may form part of the 1896 Johnson repairs. The entire building is roofed in natural slate, except for lead coverings on the tower and west porch.

The church plan comprises a nave with a north aisle of almost equal size, a 3-bay porch or narthex across the west, a crossing tower, north and south transepts, a choir, chancel, and side chapels. The east front features three gables of different sizes.

The west front is dominated by a central entrance leading into a 3-bay porch, both dating from 1881-2. The porch entrance itself is a pointed arch of 14th-century type with triple moulded opening and an ogee arched hoodmould with high-relief finial resembling a tomb niche. This is flanked by buttresses rising to pinnacles that frame the arch's gable. Beyond these are 3-light Perpendicular windows with cusped heads and quatrefoils. Diagonal corner buttresses and pointed-arch doorways on the returns complete the composition, with a quatrefoil frieze running around the parapet. Behind the porch, gable ends are supported by stepped buttresses at corners and centre. Each steeply pitched gable contains a tall 4-light Perpendicular window with elaborately traceried head and dripmould, a quatrefoil sunk within a roundel, copings, and apex cross.

The north aisle wall appears medieval, with four large evenly spaced 3-light windows that are probably Victorian restorations, at least in part, with limestone dressings. The east gable has an apex cross and a large 5-light Perpendicular window dating from 1954. The gable roof sits lower than a previous roof line visible against the tower's north face. Slit windows appear on the left return. The north wall of the choir chapel has a plain doorway flanked by a 3-light Decorated window with trefoils on the left and a smaller 2-light window to the right.

The chancel's east gable displays a large 5-light Perpendicular window from 1922 with a corbel table above. The Herbert Chapel's east gable has a large 4-light Perpendicular window. The south transept, though partly medieval in fabric, connects directly to modern Church Rooms built in 1999 to designs by Morgan and Horowskyi, and has a 3-light 20th-century window on its west wall.

The south nave wall has three 3-light windows matching those on the north, but without limestone quoins. The fourth westernmost window is missing, and the walling becomes increasingly Victorian towards the west end.

The crossing tower is square with a stair turret attached to its north-west corner. Long-and-short quoins and window dressings are in white limestone, with drip courses below and above the bell-stage. Three faces have trefoil-headed lancets; an additional one sits above the lower south transept roof. The bell-stage has a 2-light Decorated opening with trefoil tracery on each face and a castellated parapet.

The interior has been substantially shaped by the 1881-2 restoration by Thomas Nicholson, which recreated the nave-to-aisle arcade and both roofs. The eastern section was restored in 1896 by E A Johnson. The 5-bay arcade comprises slim compound Perpendicular-style quatrefoil piers in white limestone. The crossing arches and those from chancel into side chapels are 14th-century Decorated work. The chancel vault is plaster, renewed in 1836.

The church contains monastic choir stalls from the time of Prior Wynchester (1493-1516), though apparently assembled from different sources at that period and restored by Hugh Harrison in 1998. A Norman font bowl was reset in 1897. A 15th-century Jesse figure, carved in oak with exceptional skill, is an extreme rarity. The World War I Memorial is by W D Caroe. Surviving pews and joinery date from 1881. The Herbert Chapel is floored with medieval ledger slabs.

The church holds a remarkable collection of medieval and later funerary monuments, particularly in the Herbert Chapel. Those in the main church include Lord Hastings (died 1325), a carved and coloured wooden knight; Eva de Broase, a mid-13th-century sandstone figure; and Dr David Lewis (died 1584), signed by John Gildon.

The Herbert Chapel contains seven important monuments spanning the early 14th to mid-17th centuries, restored in the 1990s and returned to their medieval arrangement: Sir Lawrence Hastings (died 1348); Sir William de Hastings (died 1348), possibly killed at the Battle of Poitiers; Sir William (died 1446) and Lady Gwladys (died 1454) ap Thomas; Sir Richard (died 1469) and Lady Margaret Herbert; Richard Herbert of Ewyas (died 1510); Andrew Powell (died 1631) and wife; and William Baker (died 1648) and wife. This is as fine and varied a group of monuments as can be seen anywhere.