Description

TL 64 SE STURMER CHURCH WALK 2/10 Parish Church of 21/6/62 St. Mary the Virgin (formerly listed as GV Church of St Mary) I Parish church, early Cll and later. Flint and pebble rubble with dressings of limestone and clunch, porch of red brick, roofs of handmade red clay tiles. Nave early Cll, chancel C12, W tower C14, S porch early C16, all well restored in C19. The E angles of the chancel have half-round shafts with helical fluting and raised dots, and plain cushion-capitals. In the E wall are 3 lancet windows of c.1200 with chamfered jambs and heads. In the N wall are 2 small C12 windows with chamfered jambs and semi-circular heads. In the S wall are 2 large lancet windows, early C13, chamfered and rebated outside, restored. The eastern window is higher in the wall than the other, and below it there is an early C16 doorway with square head, moulded wooden frame and plain boarded door, blocked internally. There is no chancel arch. The walls are plastered internally except over the rear-arch of the SW window, and the roof is also plastered. At the W end there is a single cambered tiebeam, moulded and crenellated, C16. The nave has 2 N windows, the eastern C15, of 2 cinquefoiled lights under a square head with double-convex moulded splays and a segmental-pointed rear-arch; the western window is C16, of 2 plain lights under a square outer order, of brick externally. Between them is the Cll doorway, only 710mm wide, now blocked. It appears to be unrebated; the jambs have wide-jointed quoins; the stone lintel is segmental at the top, forming a square head, ornamented with incised horizontal and vertical lines. The internal lintel is of wood with similar ornament on the soffit. In the S wall are 2 C15 windows, each of 2 cinquefoiled lights; the eastern window has a square head and moulded label; the western originally had tracery in a 2-centred head, but the upper part was altered to a segmental head when the roof was rebuilt c.1500. Between the windows is the S doorway, early Cll, with plain jambs, semi-circular tympanum forming the lintel, and grotesque head corbels (the W restored). The tympanum has an irregular design of low- relief carvings - 2 square interlacing patterns of different sizes, a band of interlacing arches and a band of half-flowers. Asymmetrically superimposed is an outer doorway, C12, with nook-shafts and scalloped capitals; the E shaft has chevron ornament, the W shaft is missing. The arch is semi-circular with deeply- incised chevron ornament. Outside, immediately E of the doorway, is a plain stoup, C16, with Tudor arch, chamfered jambs and cylindrical well, the projecting part broken off. At the W end of the nave there are diagonal buttresses, C14. The roof is in 5 bays, of double hammerbeam construction with simple pierced tracery in the spandrels and carved pendants in the middle of each truss, c.1500; the wallplates are carved with running foliage. The square W tower, C14, is built in 3 stages with diagonal buttresses and a low-pitched pyramidal roof with projecting eaves, probably original. On the E face there are stone weatherings for an earlier nave roof, higher and steeper than the present one. The E doorway has jambs and 2-centred arch of 2 orders, defaced, wih graffito IM 1716. The W window of the ground stage is of one pointed light, defaced. At the second stage there are S and W windows each of a single pointed light with chamfered 4-centred rear-arch. The bell-chamber has in each wall a window originally of 2 trefoiled lights in a square head, much altered, with C16 brick jambs. The bell-cage is ancient, possible original, with curved saltire bracing on the E and curved tension bracing elsewhere. The S porch is of red brick, English bond, early C16, with a plain 2-light window in each side wall and a 4-centred archway of 2 continuously chamfered orders, restored. The gable is crow-stepped, with a terracotta sundial. The plank benches of the porch appear to be original. There are 3 bells, the first C15, inscribed "Sancte Gabriel", possibly by John Sturdy, the second by Miles Graye, 1617, the third by Miles GraYe, 1661. There are 2 reversed shield of heraldic glass in the SE window of the nave, late C15, representing Harsicke and Doreward. In the porch there are floor slabs to (1) Radclyffe Hall, 1675, and (2) (Martha) wife of Radclyffe Todd and (Thomas) Ferrand, 1679, defaced. In the chancel there are floor slabs to (1) Thomas Ferrand, 1680, and (2) Thomas Ferrand, 1712. On the S wall of the nave there is a tablet with shield of arms to Sarah Eliza (Massingberd) Todd, 1794, and her husband Radcliffe Pearl Todd, 1813. On the N wall there are the arms of George II, painted on canvas. This is a good example of a simple parish church of early date, well maintained, its character unaffected by elaborate fittings or monuments.

Listing NGR: TL6902243899

External Links

• Wikidata Q17535757

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