Church of St Mary

Details

ST 8026
12/117

GILLINGHAM
HIGH STREET (north side)
Church of St Mary

16.8.60

GV
I
Parish church, chancel C14, main body of church 1838-1839, west tower 1908-1909, south chapel and vestries 1921. Main body of church by Walker (Pevsner), tower by C.E Ponting and south chapel and vestries by Caröe. Ashlar and coursed, squared rubble with ashlar dressings. Slate and lead roofs.

Plan: nave, chancel, west tower, north and south aisles and chapels, south vestry, north and south porches. Largely in the 'Decorated' style, windows having curvilinear tracery.

Chancel of five bays with two-light, C19 pointed windows and square-set three-weathered stage buttresses. C19, pointed, four-light east window. Moulded string course with ball-flower decoration and gargoyles. Nave has six-bay clerestory with lancets. North chapel and north and south aisle have windows uniform with those of the chancel. East window of north chapel, west window of north aisle and east and west windows of south aisle are of three-lights under pointed heads with vertical tracery. Two storeyed porches with coped gables and chamfered, pointed heads. Above doors and in east and west walls are windows uniform with those of the clerestorey. Three stage west tower with square-set buttresses to lower two stages, string courses and embattled parapet with crocketted corner finials. North face has no division into stages and has a rectangular vice turret. Pointed, moulded west door. Pointed, three-light west-window. Second stage has two-light, square-headed window and round window above. There are blind recesses north and south. Belfry windows of two-lights with pointed heads and panel tracery. South chapel has two-light, square headed windows with stopped labels and brattishing above.

Internal features: four-centred, chamfered chancel arch on foliage carved corbels; two-centred, chamfered tower arch; three bay, two-centred nave arcades on octagonal piers with capitals and bases; two bay north chapel arcade with two-centred arches of two chamfered orders; two segmental-pointed arches to the south chapel; tie-beam truss nave roof with cusped scissor-braces, supported on head corbels; chancel has tie-beam truss roof with king-posts on corbels; south chapel has highly decorated tie beam roof with king-posts; the south chapel contains much high quality C20 work and has two four-centred head doors to vestry; quatrefoiled piscina in chancel; C14 restored sedilia; C16 benches and bench ends incorporated in modern seating; carved reredos of 1925-1926 by H.P Burke Downing and Nathaniel Hitch; C15 font with octagonal bowl with paterae-much worn.

Monuments C17, C18 and C19 notably (1) that to Rev. John Jesop 1625 and Dr Thomas Jesop, with two recumbunt effigies under arches with strapwork decoration. (2) To Frances Dirdoe, 1724, large wall monument with relief of three Graces. (3) To Sir Henry Dirdoe 1724 and others of his family-wall monument by John Bastard and Co. (4) To Edward Read 1779, wall monument by F. Lancashire and Co.

Listing NGR: ST8064126583

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

102958

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Royal Commission on Historic Monuments; Inventory of Dorset Vol 4, (1972), 27-30
Pevsner, N, Newman, J, The Buildings of England: Dorset, (1972), 214-215

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.