Church of St Mary

Details

PAINSWICK NEW STREET SO 8609/8709 (part) (south east side) 8/183 Church of St Mary 21.10.55 GV I Anglican parish church. Late C14, nave c.1480, C15 tower, restoration 1883 by Waller, including rebuilt south aisle arcade, porch 1968. Dressed squared Painswick stone, stone slate roofs, lead to aisles. Nave with aisles, chancel, north and south chancel chapels, vestry, south porch, west tower with spire. Three-stage tower with diagonal buttresses to 6 offsets and plinth, to crenel- lated parapet and octagonal spire with roll-mould arrises; moulded strings to stages. West front has small plank door in segmental head, under 3-light Perpendicular window, a cusped lancet, and a 2-light belfry opening with louv- res. North front has similar belfry opening above clock face in square surround set diagonally; plank door up step to belfry stair. South front has a baroque wall monument, cusped lancet and 2-light belfry opening. South aisle has 2-light with transom to the west, and 4 similar to south, all late C19 'Perpen- dicular' to string course, blocking and plain parapet. No clerestory to nave. Canted south porch of 1968. Vestry of 1890 has 5-light south and 2-light east window, and door to south side with gabled canopy on brackets. Sanctuary has diagonal buttresses, 2-light windows north and south, 3-light to east, coped gable; also coped gable to chancel east end. East end of St Peter's chapel has 4-light, and north side two 2-light, coped gable, diagonal buttress. North aisle in 5 bays with 2-light Perpendicular windows separated by shallow buttres- ses, that to bay 4 set above pair of C19 doors to pointed arch with drip. Wet end blank. Plinth, parapet string, blocking and moulded capping, gargoyles. No clerestory to nave. Interior: 5 bay nave arcade with octagonal shafts to mannerist divided capitals and 4-centred arches; that to south aisle a late C19 rebuilding; no clerestory. Flat 4-centred arched Cl9 timber roof in 6 bays. Double chamfered chancel arch; to tower an inscription to top of 'dado' rail at 2 m, and fine screen as memorial to Edwin Gyde, 1901 with gilded eagle of 1722; screen white and black veined marble in Renaissance style. Tower arch fitted panelling and y-tracery. North aisle continues as St Peter's Chapel at east end; aisle has door opposite south entry, in bay 2 from west; arch-braced single slope roof, 3 windows with early C20 glass, by Powell. Four carved corbel heads and one blocked but unworked, on north wall. St Peter's chapel, probably of 1377 build has two 2-light C14 style windows and 4-light to east, arch-braced rafter roof with one moulded tie-beam. Two bays open to chancel, in detail as nave arcade; C20 screens by Ellis Mars land as 1918 memorial, good Perpendicular detail. On the north side a C15 Purbeck marble tomb. Tudor canopy including fan vault carved from solid alabaster effigies of early C7 moved here in C18, when central Corinthian column inserted as vault support. Squint to nave. South aisle has 4-bay flat C19 ceiling, braced with 'fret- work'. Windows by Geoffrey Webb, mid C20 and a heraldic window by Francis Sleat, 1960. Chapel at east end, now used as vestry, extended to the south. East window is 2 x 2-light C15 form over a splendid stone reredos with fluted Ionic columns and broken pediment with decalogue: screen by John Bryan is 1743. Bryan was the 'carver' employed on some of the fine churchyard monu- ments. Chancel is one bay, extended into Sanctuary which formerly was the Lady Chapel. Faceted C19 panelled ceiling. Cusped piscina to south; 3 part rere- dos. Tiled floors, generally, raised timber panels to pew areas. Fittings and monuments: standing near to pulpit, remaining section of C14 spire. Pews of C20. Rood 193. Snelzler of 1770 brought here in 1818. Royal Arms, William IV. Various white marble monuments in tower; south aisle includes good baroque cartouche to John Webb, 1712; in north aisle a model of the Bonaventura of 1885, good carved C17 slab under first window from west, also Ann Berriman, 1738. South chapel includes 6 good wall monuments, including Revd George D........ of 1686. Church was originally owned by Llanthony Priory, Gloucester; nothing of the C12 church remains. Major problems have been involved because the spire was struck by lightning in 1763 and 1883; also the south aisle, rebuilt in a classical mode in 1741 was replaced again in Gothic in 1883. (Verey, D Gloucestershire; The Cotswolds; 1970: Hyett, F A, Glimpse of the History of Painswick, 1928).

Listing NGR: SO8666809642

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

133370

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Verey, D, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire 1 The Cotswolds, (1970)
Hyett, FA, Glimpses of the History of Painswick, (1957)

Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 16 Gloucestershire,

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