Description

SP59 SE
4/1

ASHBY MAGNA
GILMORTON ROAD (East Side)
Church of St. Mary

11.1.55

GV
II*
Parish Church. Essentially a late C13 building given a new chancel and
restored in 1861. Random granite rubble with galletting, and limestone
dressings. Plain tiled roofs with ridge cresting. Tower, nave with north
aisle, chancel. West tower of four stages with angle buttresses, one of which
contains a worn niche with fleurons. Embattled parapets. Blocked narrow west
doorway and 3-light window above it, Victorian in the Decorated style. Paired
foiled lights to bell chamber. Tall south wall with Victorian inserted
3-light windows of coarse Decorated tracery. There are two earlier windows
above as if forming a clerestory: these are each a single light with rounded
head. Chancel is entirely Victorian and the stonework is of a smaller grade
of rubble. South windows are in a C13 style. The east window consists of 2
pairs of lancets with quatrefoil above, forming a plate traceried design.
Late C13 style windows in north aisle are of intersecting tracery, but also
C19, as is the north doorway with its slight roll mouldings. Plinths and
buttresses to the aisle, and parapet to north nave wall, like a blind
clerestory. Inside, the nave extends west of the 3 bay north arcade to the
tower arch which is double chamfered and has an inner arch springing from
corbels. Late C13 arcade has short octagonal shafts with abaci and double
chamfered arches with outer hoodmould with corbel heads. The eastern respond
is cut by the chancel wall showing that when the chancel was rebuilt it was
brought slightly forward from its original alignment. Nave roof has tie beams
and queen posts with curved bracing. Chancel arch has clustered shafts as
responds and is chamfered with hoodmould. Shallow arch through to late C19
vestry to north of chancel. Piscinas in north and south are Victorian in an
early C14 style. North window has two paired lancets set behind a double
arched recess with central freestanding column. Furnishings and fittings all
apparently date from the restoration. Stained glass: tiny fragments of C15
glass survive in one north aisle window: small yellow flowers. West window
has glass of c1860 and the chancel east and south windows are of 1847: scenes
from the life of Christ in medieval style combine uneasily with the more
abstract backdrop of medallions. Round the west tower arch are stencilled
Victorian flowers while the north doorway and the chancel arch are surmounted
by texts. Evidently there were other texts and a painted frieze adorning the
south wall but these have almost perished leaving only shadowy traces.

Listing NGR: SP5637090479

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17539150

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas