Details
TL 22 NE WALKERN CHURCH END
(north side)
1/6 Parish Church of
St Mary the Virgin
24.11.66 (C of E)
(formerly listed as
Church of St Mary)
GV I
Parish church. A-S Cll nave, early C12 S aisle, early C13 chancel
and N aisle, early C14 W tower, early C15 2-storeys S porch,
late C15 aisle windows and a clerestorey. Rainwater heads dated
1789. Chancel restored 1878, NE chapel 1882 by Hugh Roumieu
Gough. C19 SE vestry, restoration and re-seating 1882. Flint
rubble with dressings of Barnack stone and clunch. Chancel and
flanking chapel and vestry steep roofs in old red tile. Flatter-
pitched roofs of W parts concealed by crenallated parapets.
Pyramid slate roof to tower topped by a tall slender finial.
In a hollow by a ford over the River Beane, a small church of
nave, N and S aisles, unbuttressed 3-stage W tower, 2-storeys
S porch, and chancel flanked by lean-to NE chapel and SE vestry.
Tall Saxon nave, proportioned 1:2, with a sculptured Rood in
Situ, formerly external over S door, of robed Christ. S wall
pierced by 2 plain round arched openings in early C12 with multiple
cable moulded impost on E jamb of W archway, possibly re-used
from Saxon S door. In S aisle Norman S door with recessed order
and colonettes, and blocked Norman window to W. C13 3-bay N
arcade of nave into narrower N aisle. Octagonal columns with
moulded caps and bases support 2-centred arches of 2 chamfered
orders. Late C14 N doorway of 2 moulded orders. 4 carved heads
as roof corbels. Late C15 windows, 3 3-light in N wall and a
2-light window in W wall. S aisle has a 4-light C15 S window,
3-light similar window at W, lower door and winding rood stair
at NE, small C15 door to W of S door leading by winding
stair to parvise over porch, late C14 clunch octagonal font with
shafts worked on alternate facets of bowl, and in an arched wall
recess in S wall the fine Purbeck marble effigy of a knight with
crossed legs, mail hauberk, coif, chausses, long surcoat, shield,
sword and closed flat-topped helm (said to be William de Lanvalei
d. 1211, or his son of same name d,121?). Tall double chamfered
arch into tower, with recessed reticulated tracery in 3-light W
window. Late C15 bell-chamber openings above. Low pitched
medieval roofs over nave and aisles contemporary, each of 3 bays
with moulded principals, sub-principals, purlins and ridge, with
carved bosses at intersections and provision for angel figures
to be fixed with wings displayed on the lower part of each sub-
principal. Deep cambered tie beams and arched knee-braces from
wall posts in nave and N aisle. Wide C13 chancel arch of 2
chamfered orders has a C15 oak screen, panelled below and with 2
open traceried bays each side of central opening. Chancel has a
trefoil headed early C13 piscina with dog-tooth ornament and
shafted jambs, triple C13 stepped sedillia, C19 triple lancet E
window with shafted rerearch, 2-bay C19 N arcade in elementary
plate-tracery into NE chapel, and stepped sanctuary with
patterning of encaustic and glazed coloured tiling in floor.
Slim C16 octagonal oak pulpit. Royal arms over tower arch.
Consecration crosses on E jamb of W arch of S arcade, and in
knapped flint externally on each face of base of tower. Brasses:
to Edward Humberston and wife 1583 in front of tower arch
(palimpsest of John Lovekyn 1368); to C15 man and wife, and
inscription to William Bramfielde 1596 both in floor of N aisle;
to Edward Chapman 1621 and wife 1636 on S wall of chancel; 3
inscriptions in vestry. Wall monuments: to Gyles Humberston
1627, on S wall of nave, an aedicule with Corinthian pilasters,
broken pediment, mantled achievement and man and wife kneeling
facing over prayer desk; to David Gorsuch 1638 and wife, on S
wall of chancel, a similar aedicule of 2 arches with kneeling
figures; to Philip Adams 1803, on N wall of N aisle, a tablet
surmounted by a draped urn, referring to tomb in churchyard
(q.v.). A church of outstanding interest on account of its early
origins, varied dates of development, the Saxon Road sculpture
and the early C13 knight's effigy in the S aisle. (RCHM (1911)
224-5: VCH (1912) 155-7: Kelly (1914) 254: Pevsner (1977) 372-3).
Listing NGR: TL2928626565
