Church of St Mary

Details

SP2043
9/65

ILMINGTON
MIDDLE STREET (West side)
Church of St. Mary

(Formerly listed as Parish Church of St. Mary)

13/10/66

GV
I
Church. Mid C12 with late C12, early C13, mid C14, C15 and C16 alterations and additions. Restored 1846, 1911 and 1936. Limestone ashlar and squared, coursed rubble with tile roofs. Chancel with vestry to north, nave with north and south transepts, south porch and west tower.

Chancel of two bays has diagonal offset buttresses and coped gable. C12, rebuilt early C13. To east a C19 four-light window in Perpendicular style with chamfered surround and hood mould with label stop. To south a pointed priest's doorway with moulded surround and stiff leaf capitals. Later plank door. Hood mould with C13 carved head label stops.Similar carved head at apex below a single pointed lancet. To left and right a square-headed window with two round-headed lights each. Hollow chamfered surrounds and hood moulds with carved label stops. To north a vestry with plinth, diagonal buttresses and moulded coped parapet. C14 two-light cusped window to north with curvilinear tracery. Chamfered surround. To either side of vestry a single chamfered lancet.

Nave of three bays is C12 with late C14 clerestory. Moulded coped parapet. To south an early C16 porch with moulded plinth and diagonal offset buttresses. Four-centred hollow chamfered arch. Hood mould with label stops. To east and west square-headed, two-light window with iron transoms and mullion ending in spear head. Four-centred arched doorway with chamfered and hollow-chamfered surround. Above, the remains of the C12 arch with zig-zag mould. C15 cusped niche with poppy head, broken through C12 arch. C20 plank door with carved mouse on surround. To right of porch a doorway of two orders with shaft and capital, now blocked, with leaded window. To left of porch a C14 two-light window with reticulated tracery and double-chamfered surround.

Clerestory to north and south has three two-light cusped square-headed windows with double chamfered surrounds. North transept is C13, enlarged C15 and has diagonal offset buttresses, coped parapet and plinth. To north a C19 three-light window in Decorated style. To east and west two C15 two-light square-headed windows with hood mould and carved label stops. C19 three-light window to east in Decorated style. C15 south transept, almost entirely rebuilt C19, has Perpendicular style windows to east and west, with a three-light window to south in Decorated style. West tower of three stages, the first two stages are C12 with broad, flat buttresses and C12 round-headed lancets to south and west. C15 top stage has castellated parapet with a gargoyle below to each side. C15 two-light cusped bell-chamber windows with stone slate louvres. C12 stair turret has single lights to west with a further C15 light to top stage. Painted sundial to south face of tower, with clock to west dated 1868.

Interior: chancel has C13, four-bay niche arcade to north and south with hollow-chamfered surrounds. Further C15 triple sedilia with cusps restored C19, small cusped piscina to left. Restored C12 round-headed chancel arch of two orders of shafts and capitals. North transept arch is C13 with round shaft and capital north-west and C19 polygonal respond to east. Hood mould with C13 carved head label stop. C19 south transept arch in C15 style. C12 round-headed quadruple-chamfered tower arch. Square-headed stair turret door in tower. C15 roofs, restored C20, rest on stone corbels. Polygonal moulded font C19 stained glass in chancel. OS altar table. C15 effigy of priest in tower. Stone tablet in north transept set up by John Palmer for his father Richard, died 1582, and his own wife Frances who died 1601. Brass to Brent family, from 1595 to 1666, with a brass of the Brent wyvern to either side. Brass tablet to Biles Palmer. Further brass to Edmund, son of Henry Jones, died 1667. One C18 and two early C19 marble tablets in nave walls. Grave slabs in nave to Joan Canning of Foxcote, 1685, and to Thomas Canning, 1716. Five bells by Henry Bagley, 1641. C20 pews with 'mouse' carvings by the mouse man of Kilburn'. Good C16 chest in tower.

(Buildings of England: Warwickshire, pp.316-7; V.C.H.: Warwickshire, Vol.5,
pp. 100-103).


Listing NGR: SP2096843470

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

306428

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Warwick, (1949), 100-103
Pevsner, N, Wedgwood, A, The Buildings of England: Warwickshire, (1966), 316-7

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.