Parish Church of St Maragret

Details

TL 74 SE TILBURY-JUXTA-CLARE 2/11 Parish Church of St 21.6.62 Margaret I

Parish church, C15 and C16. Plastered flint rubble with limestone dressings, W tower of red brick in English bond, roofs of handmade red clay tiles. Orientated NE-SW. The Chancel, Nave and S porch are mid-C15, W tower early C16, with minor restoration of 1850. The E gable of the Chancel has cusped and gabled kneelers and apex stone. The E window is of 5 cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a 2-centred head; the head and label are moulded. In the N wall are 2 windows each of 2 cinquefoiled lights with tracery under a segmental-pointed head with moulded label. In the S wall are 2 windows uniform with those in the N wall. Between them is a doorway with jambs and 2- centred arch of 2 moulded orders and a moulded label. The chancel-arch is 2- centred and of one moulded order on the W side, and 2 chamfered orders on the E side; the responds have each a semi-octagonal attached shaft with moulded capital and base. The roof of the Chancel is C15, composed of 18 couples of 7 cants with scissor-braces formed of short timbers tenoned into the frames, with moulded wallplates. The E gable of the Nave has kneelers and apex stone like those of the Chancel. In the N wall are 2 windows; the eastern is of 3 cinquefoiled and sub-cusped lights with tracery in a 2-centred head; the external reveals, label and rear-arch are moulded. The western is of 2 cinquefoiled lights with transomed tracery in a segmental-pointed head; the mouldings are similar. Between these windows is the N doorway, blocked externally. The rear-arch is segmental-pointed; the rebate for the door and the original pintles are exposed. In the S wall are 2 windows uniform with the corresponding windows of the N wall. Between them is the S doorway, with jambs and 2-centred arch of 3 moulded orders and a moulded label. The roof of the Nave is of 7 cants, plastered to the soffit. There are 3 moulded tiebeams, each mounted on wallpieces on simple head-corbels, mostly grotesque, with short curved braces and blind tracery in the spandrels. The W tower is of red brick with diaper patterns in blue headers, built in 1519 for Elizabeth, Countess of Oxford (Morant). It is of 3 stages without external division, with diagonal buttresses, a semi-octagonal SE stair-turret and crenellated parapet. The tower-arch is 4-centred and of 3 orders, chamfered on the E face, square on the W face, with chamfered responds. In the S wall is a doorway to the stair-turret with a moulded segmental arch. The W window has a 4-centred arch of alternate red and blue bricks, the remainder C19. The second stage has a loop in the N and S walls. The bell-chamber has in each wall a window of 2 pointed lights under a 4-centred head. In the E and W walls above the window is a decayed stone panel. The stair-turret is lit by plain loops; in its S wall there is a similar stone panel and a recess for another. The S porch has a 4-centred entrance archway with responds which have semi-octagonal attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases. It has a moulded label with male and female headstops, possibly introduced. The E and W walls each have a window which is C19 except the splays and segmental-pointed rear-arch. The roof of the porch is of 7 couples, similar to that of the Chancel, but with moulded and crenellated wallplates. There are 2 C15 piscinae, in the Chancel and the S wall of the Nave, each cinquefoiled with foiled drain and a wooden credence shelf, apparently original. The head of the piscina in the Chancel is grooved for glass. The sills of the NE windows of Chancel and Nave are carried down to form seats. There is a C15 stoup in the E wall of the porch, with round head and restored bowl. There are wall paintings in the Nave. On the N wall is a representation of a timber-framed building with exposed close brick nogging in oblique patterns, tiled roof, and in the foreground a figure with a horse, mid or late C15. Superimposed at the W side is conventional foliage, late C16. On the S wall there are traces of a figure with diapered and quatrefoiled background, late C15, and conventional foliage and part of a black-letter text, late C16. Inside the N wall of the tower there is a winged beast in moulded plaster; and in the S wall is a small plinth and head, a molet in moulded plaster and a headless boar on a shelf, insignia of the De Veres. The font has an octagonal stem with recessed sides and moulded shafts and bases at the angles, and a base incorporating a step, C15. The bowl is C19/20, and the decayed original bowl is inverted beside it. The pulpit is early C17, octagonal with guilloche arcades in the panels, restored, and C19 turned shafts of marble. There is C15 glass in the head of the E window, mostly tabernacle work, and fragments reset in the NE window of the Nave. The S doors of the Nave are C15, with continuous curved and moulded edge-timbers, stiles and ledges rivetted at the crossings, and humped planks with C19 fillets. There are 2 bells, the first by Miles Graye, 1607, the second by Thomas Gardiner, 1729. Against the outside of the S wall of the Chancel there is a memorial slab to John Clerke, senior, 1681, and Anne his wife, 1692, with shield of arms; and inside there is another to John Clerke, 1722, with shield of arms. Set in the outide and inside walls there are a number of stone bosses and other ornaments of doubtful provenance, some collected in Bury St. Edmunds by Mrs. C.W. Brett in the early C20. One which may be original is a small terracotta female figure in the outside W wall of the Nave, possibly the Countess of Oxford. In the tower there is framed coat of arms of George III, dated 1764, with broken pediment, and a dado of late C16/early C17 panelling. This church is remarkable in being entirely of the C15 (except the tower), with minimal restoration, and an interior unobstructed by monuments or late features.

Listing NGR: TL7595540290

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