Church of St Mary the Virgin

Details

TQ 16NW SUNBURY-ON-THAMES, FORMER UD CHURCH STREET Sunbury 4/22 Church of St. Mary 11/9/51 The Virgin GV II* Church. 1752, designed by Stephen Wright (Clerk of Works to Hampton Court) to replace a medieval church on the same site; apsidal chancel with south chapel and north vestry and western extensions to aisles added in extensive remodelling by S. S. Teulon in 1857. Choir vestry to north added in 1900 and interior extensively remodelled in 1950's. Dun coloured and brown brick with coloured and glazed brick decorations in white, yellow, red and blue. Stone dressings on tower and low pitched hipped slate roofs with bands of green and blue slate. Copper dome over tower supporting wooden lantern with lead roof and gilt sphere and weathervane finial. Original church had wide nave with small chancel and west tower. Chancel enlarged, vestries added, porch added to west and aisles extended in C19. 4 stage tower crowned by octagonal lantern with keystoned arch, on compass axes and roundels over in canted angles. Flat lintel openings to corners with iron balcony railings across front. Angle pilaster-pier buttresses to main body of tower rising through all stages, corbelled eaves to top with chamfered angles. Plat bands between each stage and additional square pier buttresses rising to the second stage under stone obelisk and spherical finials. Large round-headed louvred openings on each face of upper stage under keystone and with impost blocks. Stone and gilt clock face below on north and south sides under large stone open pediments supported by console brackets. Plate tracery roundel below on west front with roll moulding and two-step brick surround (the outer course being in red and blue brick in cog pattern). Elaborate string course over second stage with square tiles alternating with stone pyramids on brick dentil course. Plate tracery,two-light window below with short,round centre mullion on gablet. Jamb shafts flanking under round caps; cusped lights and coloured brick round-head arch over with carved keystone. Tiled impost courses extending to buttresses. West doors under round arch with stone foliage cap imposts and carved keystone. Glazed brick roundel with decoration in panel over chamfered and shouldered door surround. On north and south lower stages of tower are C19 bays,angled to corners with brick broaches. Double brick dentilled eaves, corbelled, with dog tooth band above. Lancet fenestration under round brick arched head; two-step surrounds to doors. Strip-buttressed,5-bay north and south sides with plinth and plat band over ground floor. Diagonal brick dentil course with plain brick dentil bands to eaves decorated with cut brick quatrefoils and additional corbel course. Outer bays narrower, centre three with round headed 2-light and roundel windows under decorated heads. Apsidal chancel to east with flanking ends each under sloping roof. Two bays to north and south sides with chequerwork brick plinths. Two-light fenestration with round-columned jamb shafts to windows under foliage caps. Plate tracery wheel windows to east flanking main apse. North vestry and choir vestry with two bay loggia to ground floor on north end, originally open on octagonal columns. "Venetian" window in gable above. Interior:- largely gutted in 1950's. Only chancel and chancel chapels remain. Tall chancel arch on giant attached columns with coloured and striped brick arch. Stone and marble arcades to north and south of chancel with tall broach-stop pedestals with cusped arcading. Sgraffito decoration of chancel illustrating the gospels,by Heywood Sumner in 1892. Octagonal plinth to grey marble bowl font with gadrooned top. Monuments:- Three good monuments in north chancel chapel:- Early C18 one to left with foliate edge to inscription panel on corbel brackets and garland swag. Composite columns flanking support segmental pediment crowned by urn and cherubs. Central Monument:- to Lady Jane Coke. 1761. Very rich coloured red marble with grey stele. White marble oval sculpture with swans neck pediment above. Female figure and angel in main panel, inscription panel below with egg and dart scrolled surround. Monument to Robert Dyer, 1746. White marble and flanking scrolls. Grey marble aedicule with pediment under crowning cartouche. Three cherubim in apron.

PEVSNER: BUILDINGS OF ENGLAND, SURREY (1971) pp.470 & 599. V.C.H. Middlesex (1962) Vol. III pp. 51 & Frontispiece.

Listing NGR: TQ1062168514

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

287994

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cockburn, J S, King, H P F, McDonnell, K G T, The Victoria History of the County of Middlesex, (1962), 51
Pevsner, N, Nairn, I Rev. by Cherry, The Buildings of England: Surrey, (1971), 470 599

End of official list entry