Description

TG 01 NE SPARHAM WELL LANE
(north side)

4/39 Church of St.Mary
30.5.60.
- I

Parish church. Medieval and later. Flint with ashlar and some brick dress-
ings. Slate, lead and black pantile roofs. West tower nave with aisles
and south porch and chancel. C14 and C15 west tower with diagonal buttresses
and stair turret to south. Chequer flushwork on buttresses. West doorway
with dying mouldings and a fine C14 niche above with a nodding ogee arch
and little rib vaults. Fleuron decorated reveals flanked by a pair of tiny
shafts capped with carved beasts. Crocketted arch with shields set in
tracery and an embattled parapet above. Restored 3-light Perpendicular west
window. Cusped first floor lights to west and south. 2-light traceried
bell openings with super mullions. Crenellated parapet with flushwork and
crocketted corner pinnacles. North aisle with plain doorway, a 2-light
Y-traceried west window and 4 3-light Perpendicular windows. South aisle
with a partly blocked 2-light Decorated west window and 3 3-light Per-
pendicular windows. Later clearstorey with 14 3-light Perpendicular windows
and a large 3-light east window. Thoroughly restored chancel with 5 2-light
cusped Y-traceried side windows, a priest's door and a 2-light Perpendicular
window to south. 3-light Perpendicular east window with embattled transoms.
South porch with diagonal buttresses, a plain entrance arch and 2-light
cusped side windows. Double ogee-moulded south doorway. Interior. Angle
piscina in chancel with trilobe cusping. Plain piscina in south aisle.
Tower and chancel arches on polygonal responds - plain chamfered to chancel,
wave moulded to tower. Rood stair to north. 4-bay nave with one pair of
surviving C14 octagonal piers. The 4 westernmost piers have been remodelled
in order to support the 2 very wide western bays. The arrangement probably
dates from the C19. One pair of blocked C14 quatrefoil clearstorey windows
visible from aisles. Fine C15 arch-braced nave roof on wall posts with
carved stone corbels. Painted carved angels on ridge purlin and crosses
to the side purlins. 2 dado sections of C15 chancel screen in north aisle
with original paintings. Several medieval poppy head bench ends.

Listing NGR: TG0710619665

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17534614

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

• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey