Church of St Mary

Details

TL 5663 SWAFFHAM PRIOR HIGH STREET (East Side) 15/175 Church of St Mary 19. 8, 1959 GV I

Parish church, of West porch, West Tower, Nave, North and South aisles and chancel. St Mary's has a particularly fine west tower, mainly late C12 and early C13, but the West wall of the nave and parts of the chancel are c1100 and survive from the Norman church on the site. The nave, aisles, West porch are all C15 and the exterior was heavily restored in 1878 by Arthur Blomfield. West porch, C15, of clunch, badly worn, with rebuilt gable roof. West tower has a rectangular ground stage, late C12, and the upper two are sixteen sided and early C13. Rubble, pebble and flint with limestone dressings on a chamfered plinth. The blocked parapet is modern. Bands between stages and a cornice of billet moulding to the upper edge of the ground stage. The ground and first floors have late C12 fenestration including in the first stage round headed arches of two orders, the inner plain and the outer roll moulded on attached shafts with cushion capitals, reeded, to a window in each wall. The second stage has in each alternate side a double chamfered lancet. The third stage has a lancet to each side with only one chamfered order. Externally the nave and chancel including the fenestration and doorways date from 1878. However there is a badly worn North doorway of clunch, probably C15. Inside. The West tower was built against the West wall of the c1100 church and the round-headed tower arch with its roll moulding dates from late C12. The nave is C15 and in four bays of two centred arches of two moulded orders with the inner on attached shafts with moulded and embattled capitals. The clerestory is also C15 and of four windows to each side, each of two cinquefoil lights in four centred head. The roof has been restored but the jackposts are carried on original C15 embattled pilasters. The chancel arch has been rebuilt, but has a C15 rood loft opening, part repaired, on the South side and a squint opening in the North from the original North chapel to the chancel. Parts of the chancel wall are c1100 but all the fenestration has been removed. On the North and South walls are two blocked openings of windows of C12. The brasses and monuments in the floor in the nave have been removed and placed in the walls of the North and South aisles. The brasses are mostly C15 and C16, but there is one to Robert Chambers, 1638. The glazing is C19 and C20. In the South aisle principally to the Allix family and in the North aisle World War II and II War Memorials. The font bowl is C13 but the stem and base are modern. One of two medieval churches in the village sharing the same churchyard. The two parishes were amalgamated in 1667.

R.C.H.M. (North East Cambs.), p116, mon (1) Pevsner: Buildings of England, p466

Listing NGR: TL5680063932

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

49399

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, (1954), 466

Other
An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Cambridgeshire North East, (1972)

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