Church of St Mary the Virgin

Details

GAMLINGAY CHURCH STREET TL 2452 (South side) 12/64 22.11.67 Church of St Mary the Virgin

GV I

Parish Church. Of C13 origin extensively rebuilt in C14-C15. Carstone and fieldstone with clunch and limestone dressings. West tower, nave with transeptal chapels and north and south aisles, north and south porches, chancel. West tower C13 origin rebuilt in C14-C15. Three stages with spike, leaded, and embattled parapet with moulded main cornice having central beast gargoyles. Chamfered plinth and two stage angle buttressing. West doorway in two centred continuously moulded arch in square head with label. West window of three cinquefoil lights in four centred arch and label and mask stops. The bell stage has buttresses of clasping pilaster strips and cinquefoil openings with vertical tracery to the heads in two centred arches of three chamfered orders in square heads with label. The nave is of carstone. C13 remodelled C14-C15. Embattled parapet with clerestory of C14-C15. The south aisle of fieldstone also has an embattled parapet. C14-C15 fenestration of three cinquefoil lights in four centred arches. South porch. Carstone with embattled parapet gabled diagonal two stage buttresses and an outer arch C15, of clunch, repaired. Two centred arch in square head. The south transeptal chapel, also embattled, is of fieldstone. The south wall has a window of four cinquefoil lights in a four centred arch. The chancel of C13 origin extended C14-C15. Carstone with clunch and limestone dressings. Embattled parapet with east gable cross on carved corbel. Two south wall windows of three cinquefoil lights in four centred arches with labels and mask stops. A label at sill height is carried over the south doorway which is of three continuous moulded orders. The east window is of four cinquefoil lights in four centred arch. There is a north transeptal chapel C14-C15, of fieldstone, embattled. The north porch is of two building periods. The ground stage is C14. Carstone with two stage angle buttressing. Outer arch is two centred and has hollow and wave moulding, the arch is of clunch but the jambs are of sandstone. The side walls each have a window of two cinquefoil lights with dagger tracery in two centred arch. The parish room above C15 is of fieldstone and is embattled with beast gargoyles to moulded main cornice. There is a newel stair turret in the angle between the porch and the north aisle. Interior: Two centred, double sided west tower arch. Each side has two chamfered orders, the inner on half octagonal shafts with capital and base. The north and south nave arcade are both C13. Five bays of two centred arches of two chamfered orders on octagonal columns with moulded labels and bases. In the spandrels of four of the arches of the south arcade are carved stone bosses. The north aisle has a C13 lancet with deep splays and part of a recess possibly for a tomb in a shallow trefoil arch, cut down on the east when the north transeptal chapel was added. Crown-post nave roof C14-C15 with shallow arch bracing and foiled spandrels. Chancel arch two centred and of two wave moulded orders on west side, chamfered on east side. South wall has three seat sedilia with foiled ogee arches with running foliate ornament and finials. Adjacent is the piscina with ogee arch in square head. Communion rail, 1683 with twisted balusters on vases with moulded rail. Screen C15 but much rebuilt. In five bays, including larger centre bay. Some original work to bay divisions with engaged octagonal shafts. Choir stalls have mostly been removed except six return stalls at the west end. These have carved misericords and prayer desks some with old work including panelled ends with blank shields and poppy head finials. There are some C16 pews in the nave with panelled fronts and ends divided by pilaster buttresses in two heights and having roll moulded rail. Monuments: 1683 Philip Burton painted wooden panel in south chapel; Ralph Lane (d.1732) and Elizabeth, his wife (d.1754) wall monument on south wall of south chapel by E Bingham of Peterborough. Polychrome marble with inscription flanked by urns, apron with emblems of mortality and above a shield of arms in a broken pediment. Font, C13. Octagonal limestone bowl with two, pointed arch panels in each face. On central stone shaft with modern peripheral subsidiary shafts.

RCHM: West Cambs mon (1) Pevsner: Buildings of England p390 VCH: Cambs vol V

Listing NGR: TL2411552293

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

52728

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Salzman, L F, The Victoria History of the County of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, (1973)
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, (1954), 390

Other
An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Cambridgeshire West, (1968)

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