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PARISH CHURCH OF GREAT ST MARY'S

PARISH CHURCH OF GREAT ST MARY'S, CHURCH STREET

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1101668
Date first listed:: 05-Jun-1952
List Entry Name:: PARISH CHURCH OF GREAT ST MARY'S
Statutory Address:: PARISH CHURCH OF GREAT ST MARY'S, CHURCH STREET

User submitted image — Uploaded by Joshua Preater This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
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Date:: 2003-08-10
Reference:: IOE01/05163/32
Rights:: © Ms Elaine Allen . Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1101668
Date first listed:: 05-Jun-1952
List Entry Name:: PARISH CHURCH OF GREAT ST MARY'S
Statutory Address 1:: PARISH CHURCH OF GREAT ST MARY'S, CHURCH STREET

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: PARISH CHURCH OF GREAT ST MARY'S, CHURCH STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Hertfordshire
District:: East Hertfordshire (District Authority)
Parish:: Sawbridgeworth
National Grid Reference:: TL 48500 14822

Details

CHURCH STREET 1. 5253 (East End) Parish Church of Great St Mary's TL 4849 1481:3/61 6.6.52 GV 2. C13, C14 and C15 with C19 restorations notably by G E Pritchett (1824-1912) in 1856-59. Medieval parish church now C of E. Built of flint rubble with flint facing, stone quoins and dressings, smooth render to chancel and C16 red brick stair turret to tower. Lead roofs generally but N aisle re-covered in copper in 1951. Chancel, nave and lower part of W tower C13. N and S aisles and SE chapel early C14. Clerestory, raised nave roof, S porch and upper part of tower C15. Large square tower of 3 stages with crenellated moulded parapet surmounted by octagonal Hertfordshire Spike, its raised lead ribs forming a lozenge diaper pattern below a ball and slender wind vane. String courses at each stage with polygonal C16 brick stair on S side with crenellated top rising only to 2nd stage. C14 W doorway, C15 Perpendicular 3 light window over. C13 lancet in N and S walls of 2nd stage. C15,2-light windows with Y-tracery to 3rd stage with belfry louvres and clock dial on W face below cill. Plain parapets and buttresses elsewhere on church. N wall of chancel has blocked C15 door and RCHM (1911) 203 records 2 centred arch in S wall c.1300. C13 chancel arch. 5 light E window, 1 window in N wall and 2 in S wall. SE chapel has E window, blocked C14 window on S and rood stair in NW corner. Nave has 3-bay C14 arcades of 2-centred arches on quatrefoil pillars with moulded caps and bases. Upper door to rood loft to S of chancel arch. Narrower N aisle is C14 but probably some 20 years earlier than S aisle. 3-light windows to E and W ends and 2,2-light windows on N,all with rear arches and moulded jambs. C14 N doorway. Piscina by altar. Wider S aisle has 2 S windows and C14 doorway with traceried medieval S door with decorative ironwork. C14 tower arch. Chancel oak ceiling put up in 1872. Beams inscribed '1662. Thomas Russel repaired this chancel' and 'W Sharpe 1884'. Nave roof is C15 with moulded members, traceried spandrels and stone corbels. Both C15 aisle roofs have mouldings and carved bosses. The easternmost stone corbels in the S aisle have symbols of the Evangelists. Plaster removed from between the ribs of the aisle roofs in 1951. C15 timber roof to S porch. Octagonal font c.1400 with panelled stem and quatrefoil panels around bowl. C15 oak chancel screen of 3 bays traceried above and panelled below. Panelled oak pulpit in Jacobean style inscribed 'Christe is all in all. 1652'. Oak poor box with 3 locks c.1600. C17 large oak parish chest with 5 locks. Several early C16 bench ends. There are a great many funeral brasses and sculptured monuments of the very highest quality. According to Mrs Esdaile 'The Church in fact is a museum of English sculpture by great artists'. This is corroborated by Pevsner who also notes the C18 gravestones in the churchyard. The church is of special interest as a substantially unaltered large medieval parish church, typical of the Hertfordshire type, and with an outstanding collection of memorials of the highest artistic quality. (RCHM (1911) 202-3: VCH III (1912) 344-6: Pevsner 2nd Ed Rev (1977) 233-5: WEA II (1967) 37-46: Church Guide (1975)).

Listing NGR: TL4850014822

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 160758
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
The Parish Church of Great St Marys Sawbridgeworth, (1975)
Doubleday, A, The Victoria History of the County of Hertford, (1912), 344-6
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire, (1977), 233-5
'The Story of Sawbridgeworth' in The Churches and the People, , Vol. 2, (1967), 37-46
Other
Inventory of the Historical Monuments of Hertfordshire, (1910)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.