Church of St Mary

Details

TL 96 SW ROUGHAM

5/31 Church of St. Mary - 14.7.55 I

Parish church. C14 and C15. Nave, chancel, north and south aisles, south porch and west tower. In random flint with freestone dressings; plaintiled roofs. A small lean-to mid-C19 vestry on the north side of the chancel, and a high late C19 choir vestry with crenellated flat roof on the south side. The roofs of the nave and both aisles are embattled: the north aisle has the merlons pierced with quatrefoils, the remainder have enriched lozenges. 3- light windows in Perpendicular style to north aisle, and 2-light windows with flamboyant tracery at the east end of both aisles. 3 buttresses bear inscriptions, partly obliterated, and the date 1514: one reads 'We pray you to remember us that causyde ye yle to be made thus', and the other 'DNS JOHES SYMTH LE CURATOR ISTIUS ECCLESIAE WILMS..' The south aisle has cusped 3- light windows without tracery and one lancet at the west end. 2 blocked arches low down in the wall, interrupted by a later buttress. 4 2-light windows to clerestorey without tracery. The chancel has similar 2-light windows to north and south, and a 5-light east window with reticulated tracery. Angle buttresses at the east end. A fine early C14 south porch with a plain freestone parapet, moulded copings, and an ornate cross to the apex of the gable. The 3-light side openings are divided by circular shafts with ornate ogee-arched heads. The coved open timber roof with moulded main beam is dated 1632. C14 south doorway with continuous mouldings. The splendid west tower has traces of external render, a stepped base, diagonal buttresses, and 4 stages of varying height. A 3-light window without tracery to each face of the top stage. Stepped battlemented top, with crocketed pinnacles at the angles, decorated with flushwork panels bearing inscriptions and devices: on the south face, 'pray for ye sowle of John Tillot', and the initials T and D; on the north face, 'Drury', and on the east the entwined MR of the Virgin Mary and her emblem of a pot of lilies. Below the parapet is a frieze of tracery motifs infilled with flushwork. Fine interior to nave. A single hammer-beam roof in 10 slightly irregular bays, with the trusses spaced to enclose the clerestory windows. The short hammer-posts extend upwards to form arched braces to the high collars. The hammer-beams are recumbent headless figures bearing various shields and devices. The supporting arched braces have carved spandrels and capitals, with canopied niches below containing standing figures. All the roof components are moulded, and a frieze in 3 stages covers the wallplate, decorated with quatrefoils and cresting. Roll-mouldings to the main cross-beams of the aisle roofs, with carved bosses at the intersections and a cornice with florets and a pierced cresting. C14 arcades in 4 bays to both aisles with piers formed of 4 main shafts and 4 subsidiary shafts in the diagonals; a similar treatment to the high chancel arch. Short spur walls link the arcades to the chancel: on the north an empty ogee-headed niche with cusping set back, and on the south, a small blocked pointed doorway to the rood-loft with continuous mouldings. Early C14 cusped piscinae to both aisles. Remains of medieval glass in the east window of the north aisle, and some resited ornate Jacobean panelling. Octagonal font, with traceried panels to the bowl. A fine set of C15 benches with traceried ends and poppyheads, all different. The figures on the arms have been cut off. The backs have carved quatrefoils and a cresting. 8 pairs in the nave are original, the remainder good copies. Simpler benches in the aisles, with moulded ends and poppyheads, have been converted into low box-pews. Chancel Victorianised, with renewed scissor-braced roof; a much-restored sedilia and piscina on the south wall. The church contains a large brass to Sir Roger Drury and his wife, d.1405, and a number of C17 marble wall tablets, one to Sir Robert Drury and his wife, 1621. 2 worn early C18 black ledger slabs are set into the floor of the nave. C15 wills indicate that the medieval dedication of the church was to St. John.

Listing NGR: TL9120062596

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

284452

Legacy System:

LBS

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.