Description

TM 06 88 BANHAM CHURCH HILL

13/29 Church of St. Mary the Virgin 16.7.58 (formerly listed as Church of St. Mary) G.V. I Parish church. First half C14. Restored 1865. Flint with ashlar dressings, lead roofs but plain tiled chancel. West tower, nave, aisles and chancel. Tower in 3 stages with angle buttresses. 2-light west window with Y tracery. String courses between stages running below cusped circular ringing chamber windows on north, south and west. Reduced belfry stage with rebuilt 2-light Y openings each with agargoyle over apex in low parapet. Thin broached and leaded octagonal timber spire with gabled lucarne to east. South aisle with diagonal buttresses and 2-light cusped Y tracery windows under rounded heads, some retaining head stops to hoods. South east window of 3 lights. Knapped flint south porch with gabled lead roof and diagonal buttresses enlivened by ogeed statutory niches. Double chamfered arch with fleurons below niche. 2 2-light reticulated windows east and west, those to south with 2 subsidiary units. East window of aisle is 3-light C19 reticulated. Low side window to chancel south in form of arch within gable. 3 2-light C19 reticulated windows separated by flat buttresses, the central one shorter to accommodate an early C14 priest's door with undercut mouldings. Diagonal buttresses to east frame 5-light elaborate C19 window. East gable on kneelers. One flat buttress and 2 2-light C19 reticulated windows to north chancel. 3-light north aisle east window with ogee lights and arrangement of mouchettes probably an accurate restoration or original. North aisle with diagonal corner and 3 flat buttresses with 5 2-light mouchette or reticulated windows. North door in second bay has continuous mouldings. C19 brick and flint vestry to north of tower blocks west window. 4 flat-headed 2-light cusped clerestory windows to north and south. INTERIOR 5 bay arcade of quatrefoil piers with shafts between foils. Polygonal bases and capitals support double hollow chamfered arches. Demi-octagonal tower arch responds with polygonal capitals and triple hollow chamfered arch, now blocked. Chancel arch as nave arcades. Wave moulded stilted arch opens from north-east nave chapel into chancel under square hood to side of rood stair arch which has continuous mouldings. Ogeed trefoil piscina in chapel. C19 sedilia and piscina in chancel. Low effigy niche in chancel north wall. Chancel roof scissor braced of 1865. Nave roof is of 7 bays and King post with arched struts and Queen posts to purlins. East tie beam rod moulded and crenellated. Remainder of ties probably C17 replacements, having sunk quadrant mouldings and stops. Western tie inscribed TM 1622 IC. Heavy moulded wall plates in 3 orders. Aisle roofs of ties with strut to purlins, one in south aisle inscribed IW 1802 IL, one in north JCC 1858 WG. Ogeed effigy niche in north-east chapel wave moulded with crocket and central spandrel decorated with leaf carving. Niche contains wooden cross-legged effigy of a knight painted imitation of stone of about 1340 normally regarded as representing Sir Hugh Bardolph, but he died in 1203. C14 octagonal font, plain. Font cover 1864. Pitch-pine pews 1865. Royal arms of George III on west nave wall. Chancel and parclose screen C19.

Listing NGR: TM0634588220

External Links

• Church of St Mary the Virgin at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17534843

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)