Description

TL 4070,
11/141

WILLINGHAM,
CHURCH STREET (north side),
Church of St. Mary and All Saints

31.08.62

GV

I

Parish church, mainly early C14, with South aisle and spire
restored 1825 and general restoration of 1891. Coursed
limestone, and limestone rubble with dressed stone to quoins.
Some clunch. Tiled nave roof, and stone slates to sacristy
roof; the roofs of the chancel and South aisle are obscured by
parapets. West tower, nave, North and South aisles, south
porch, chancel and sacristy. West tower with broach spire,
early C14. Coursed limestone. Tower of three stages, embattled
on double-splayed plinth with five-stage angle buttressing.
Restored fenestration. Main cornice with frieze of boss
ornament and corner turrets with pinnacles surmounted by
finials. C14, three-stage broach spire; also of limestone
ashlar, each with gabled lucerne to each side and buttressed
from the corner turrets. The buttresses have running ornament
to the upper edge and pierced tracery in the spandrels. Nave of
coursed rubblestone, with dressed limestone to the quoins. Each
side of clerestory has three windows, each with two cinquefoil
lights in square head. Parapetted south aisle of similar date
to nave, early C14, with restored reticulated tracery, except
for C13 window possibly surviving from an earlier church in the
west wall. Large grotesque gargoyles to main cornice. The
South porch is of similar date, rebuilt 1896 with gabled
parapetted roof and mutilated corner pinnacles with finials and
niche of clunch. Below is outer two centred arch, restored at
base. Half-round engaged columns to responds, with moulded
capitals, the shafts of the columns having a large fillet.
Inner arch also early C14 of continuous hollow and roll-moulded
orders. The walls of the porch incorporate fragments of moulded
stone, some C11 possibly from an earlier church. The porch is
in two bays with restored arcading to the side walls and a late
C15 roof with hollow and roll moulding to the purlins, ridge
piece and bosses at the intersections. The Chancel has been
extensively restored in early C14 style externally. On the
North side of the chancel is a sacristy or north chapel. Like
the West tower, but unlike the rest of the church, it is of
coursed limestone ashlar with a steeply pitched stone slate
roof, the eaves having a hollow and roll moulded cornice also of
stone. East window of two cinquefoil lights with foiled head in
two-centred arch. One small two-light window to side and West
wall, also original. C15 brick rood loft stair turret in angle
between chancel and North aisle.

INTERIOR: Nave arcade of six
bays. Double chamfered two-centred arches on octagonal columns
with moulded capitals and bases. The fine angel roof to the
nave is in twelve bays, and of C15, restored C19-C20. Double
hammer-beam construction, with three tiers of angels with
outstretched wings carved to soffits of hammer beams. The other
roof timbers are also richly moulded. The North and South
aisles have fine C15 roofs. The North aisle has part of C14
parclose screen to the former chapel, the tower panels to the
nave are painted with a bird and foliate design. The South
aisle has a more intact C15 parclose screen, with fragments of
original painting. There are C14 wall tombs with ogee arches to
both North and South chapels, the one in the North chapel is
double. The chancel screen also retains original work in the
lower, closed stage. The chancel was much restored in C19 but
retains the original rear arches of C14, and a blocked C13
window with a wide splay, in the North wall. The piscina and
sedilia have been much restored. The pulpit is C16, restored
1894. The sacristy is in four unequal bays and has a fine
collar rafter roof of clunch. Three chamfered, two centred
arches each pierced with tracery. There is a piscina in the
South wall. The rafters are carried on original mask corbels.
The font is C15, octagonal with panelled sides with quatrefoils
on octagonal stem. The nave was richly painted in C15, some
areas of which have survived and the figure of St. Christopher
has been restored.

Pevsner. Buildings of England p.486
R.C.H.M. record card

Listing NGR: TL4047670501

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17528022

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

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (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]
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)