Church of St Mary
CHURCH OF ST MARY
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1383422
- Date first listed:
- 12-Nov-1954
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Mary
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-11-01
- Reference:
- IOE01/13620/02
- Rights:
- © Ms Ros Sargent. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1383422
- Date first listed:
- 12-Nov-1954
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Mary
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Shropshire (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Burford
- National Grid Reference:
- SO 58325 68028
Details
BURFORD
SO56NE Church of St Mary
582-1/8/23
12/11/54
GV I
Church. C12 chancel, C14 nave and tower, extensively restored
1889 by Sir Aston Webb.
MATERIALS: generally stone rubble with ashlar dressings, with
ashlar tower. Plain-tile roofs with ashlar-coped gables and
battlemented parapets with corner pinnacles.
PLAN: chancel with north vestry, nave with south porch, and
west tower.
EXTERIOR: crenellated cornice to nave and chancel with twin
cusped niches and carved panel over each merlon including east
wall return of chancel. String course at eaves level with
carved figurative and armorial bosses on underside
corresponding to each embrasure.
3 bay chancel with short shallow buttresses and clasping
buttress to north-east. Restored arched 3-light east window
with Perpendicular tracery, and hoodmould with king and queen
label stops. South wall has 2 C19 flat-headed mullion windows
with cusped ogee and mouchette tracery with hoodmould over,
flanking chancel door: flat-headed doorway with recess and
cross-boarded door. To left is restored window of twin cusped
lancets with Perpendicular tracery over. North wall partly
masked by C19 north vestry.
Nave: mostly restored 3 bays of buttresses with gabled offsets
with cusped niches and pinnacles rising and piercing
battlemented parapets. Window in each bay of twin cusped
lancets and Perpendicular foiled tracery over and hoodmoulds
with label stops.
West bay of nave has south door with ogee arch with
double-ovolo arch chamfer and plain chamfered jambs.
Tower: angle buttresses with ashlar offsets. Late C19 west
door and window over with Perpendicular-style moulding and
tracery. Slit windows in north face. Upper stage with late C19
work by Sir Aston Webb: each face with 2 arched openings, each
incorporating twin cusped lancets with louvres flanked by 2
tiers of cusped niches. Cusped arcaded battlemented parapet.
Angle buttresses terminated with gablets with crockets.
INTERIOR: chancel with late C19 decorative barrel vault
featuring angels. C19 pointed chancel arch. Angle piscina on
south window jamb. Nave: C14 restored trussed rafter roof.
Tall tower arch with chamfered and hollow-chamfered reveals.
C14 font: octagonal with recessed panels with raised carvings
over stem with lancet arcading. Holy water stoup set in wall
to right of south door. Wrought-iron candelabrum and lamps by
Webb. C14 or C15 octagonal font with flower pattern carvings
on the panel faces, supported on an octagonal stem with blind
niches.
Remarkable series of medieval, C16 and C17 monuments to
Cornewall family, restored by Prof. EW Tristam 1938, all with
the shields of the family: Heart of Edmund Cornewall d.1436;
arched recess over stone tomb with trefoil arcading below,
possibly a re-sited altar. Life-size painted wooden recumbent
effigy of Edmund Cornewall 1508. Life-size painted stone
recumbent effigy of Elizabeth, daughter of John of Gaunt,
under enriched ogival canopy, d.1426. Immense wooden tryptych,
3.45 metres high by 3.05 metres wide, to Richard Cornewall
d.1568 and Janet his wife d.1547, and son Edmund d.1585. Frame
with fluted Ionic pilasters, inscribed fascia and pedimented
head with painted tympanum; interior has 3 painted full-figure
portraits in upper section and a 2.21 metre tall cadaver of
Edmund Cornewall is depicted in lower section; the wings are
painted inside and outside with figures and armorial shields.
Paintings are signed by Melchior Salabossh, 1588. Early C17
wall monument with 2 kneeling figures of Sir Thomas and Anne
Cornewall 1630 (`now living, he aged 58 and she 55'). Similar
monument to Thomas and Katherine Cornewall also 1630. Baroque
wall tablet to Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Cornewall d.1675.
Monuments to Rushout family of 1822 and 1827 both by Richard
Westmacott R.A. of London and of 1852 by Charles Geerts of
Louvain. Monument to Thomas Morres d.1752 and wife Elizabeth
d.1742 by Richard Squire of Worcester.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Shropshire:
Harmondsworth, Middlesex: 1958-: 91).
Listing NGR: SO5833468030
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 483840
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (1958), 91
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 09-Jun-2026 at 11:34:42.
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