Church Of St Mary

Description

This information is taken from the statutory List as it was in 2001 and may not be up to date.

WORLINGWORTH CHURCH STREET TM 26 NW 5/115 Church of St Mary 29.7.55 - I Parish church. Medieval, restored 1866. Nave, chancel, west tower, south porch. Flint rubble with stone dressings. Nave roof leaded, chancel plaintiled. Mid C15 square tower, 23m high; 4-stage diagonal buttresses with chequer flushwork; crenellated parapet, restored mid C20. Moulded west doorway with shield-carved spandrels; above is a renewed 3-light window. 2- light belfry openings. 4-bay nave, completed c.1478, with contemporary porch.

Both are enriched with various flushwork designs on plinth and buttresses.

Large 3-light windows. Good south doorway with 2 orders of shafts and many continuous mouldings; original door. Moulded north doorway with one order of shafts supporting a hoodmould; the jambs and arch are also carved with fleurons, masks and beasts' heads; original door. Fine porch, the facade with further flushwork designs and arched panelling above; moulded entrance arch, the spandrels carved with St George and the dragon; empty canopied statue niche; crenellated parapet with flushwork. Original roof with moulded timbers. 3-bay chancel of c.1300, the 2-light side windows and Priest's doorway substantially intact; 4-light east window with Geometric tracery. The windows are hoodmoulded internally. Interior. Nave has a fine original 9-bay double hammerbeam roof: pierced tracery above the lower hammerbeams and above the collars; enriched cornice; the angels at the ends of the lower hammerbeams are a mid C20 addition. Arched-braced chancel roof of 1866. Chancel has intact angle piscina of c.1300 with a drop-sill sedilia adjacent; a further piscina in the south-east nave. In north-east corner of nave is the roof loft stair with original arched entrances above and below. C15 octagonal font on a wide, 2-stepped base; bowl panels carved with Signs of the Evangelists and shield-bearing angels; 4 lions against the stem, at the base of which is an original inscription. Tall C15 font cover with crocketed and buttressed canopy, much restored; it was re-painted and gilded in 1963. Fine and unusual set of early C17 nave box pews, splaying outwards to west: carved ends with knob finials and back-to-back consoles; a carved panel to the front of one bench at the east end bears the date 1630. Early C17 carved hexagonal pulpit with suspended tester; later wooden base and other alteration. Dado of C15 rood screen with 6 2-light traceried panels. Mid-late C19 chancel furnishings including marble and stone reredos. Chancel contains 3 good wall monuments: Sir John Major (1781); Dame Ann Henniker (1792); Elizabeth, Dowager Duchess of Chandos (1813); for details see Pevsner. Several C17-C18 ledger slabs in nave. Tracery of nave windows contains fragments of C15 glass. Small remains of medieval wall painting on north nave wall; on south-east wall part of another painting, showing a fleur-de-lys and crown. Framed Arms of George III, c.1810, on north nave wall.

Listing NGR: TM2336468642

Content

This is part of the Series: IOE01/0068 IOE Records taken by Keith Atkins; within the Collection: IOE01 Images Of England

Rights

© Mr Keith Atkins. Source: Historic England Archive

This photograph was taken for the Images of England project