Description

LICHFIELD

SK1109NE MARKET PLACE
1094-1/5/119 (South side)
05/02/52 Church of St Mary

II*

Church, the medieval guild church, adapted to include heritage
centre, old people's day centre. Rebuilt 1868-70, by James
Fowler of Louth; tower casing and steeple, 1853, by GE Street;
adapted 1979-81. Rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings; tile
roofs. Decorated style.
PLAN: 3-bay chancel with 2-bay north Dyott chapel and south
vestry and organ loft; 5-bay nave with lean-to aisles and west
tower and spire. Plinth and coped gables; geometrical tracery
to windows.
EXTERIOR: chancel has clasping buttresses with pinnacles,
7-light window on weathered sill, gable cross; 2-light
clerestory windows to north and south over lean-to chapel and
vestry; chapel and vestry have angle buttresses with pinnacles
and symbols of Evangelists (John and Luke), coped parapets;
chapel has 3-light east window and 2 north windows of 2
lights; vestry has 2-light window to left of entrance with
beast stops to breaks in sill course, C20 entrance to east
end.
Clerestory has 2 windows of 2 lights to each bay between
shallow buttresses; aisles have coped parapets and 3-light
windows between gabled buttresses, west angle buttresses with
pinnacles and symbols of Evangelists (Matthew and Mark) and
3-light windows; north entrance of 3 orders in shallow gabled
porch, gable with blind plate tracery, good carved foliage to
capitals and hood stops: C20 doors, C20 inserted entrance to
east end and C20 inserted west window.
Ashlar tower has gabled angle buttresses with top blind
tracery panels; west entrance of 3 orders with crocketed gable
with pinnacles, cinquefoil inner arch and paired doors with
rich strap hinges, gable has trefoil; 4-light west window on
deep weathered sill, upper triangular-headed blind tracery
panels and paired 2-light louvred bell-openings with crocketed
gables; quatrefoil frieze and pinnacles; spire has 3 tiers of
lucarnes, 3-, 2-, and 1-light.
INTERIOR (now sub-divided): chancel has 2-bay arcade to chapel
with good foliate capitals, chancel arch of one order with
corbelled inner arch, arch-braced roof on corbelled wall
shafts; C20 glazing to arcade and infill to chancel arch; nave
has arcades with foliate capitals, roof has arch-braced
scissor trusses, double purlins and wind braces; tower has
blocked 3-light windows to north and south, deeply splayed
tower arch. Fittings: richly carved altar, reredos and
panelling to east wall, sedilia recess with deep canopy to
south, vestry door of 2 orders and good organ case, war
memorial to north of altar, timber stalls and altar rail;
north aisle has triptych in alabaster frame: The Adoration of
the Magi.
Monuments: several C18 and C19 wall tablets to members of the
Dyott family in the chapel; good memorial to C17 members of
the family, 1662, recording their service in the Civil War,
panel in form of banner in slate border and eared architrave,
broken pediment with armorial bearing, apron with festoon and
cherub.
Stained glass: some good C19 and C20 glass, especially good
east window, possibly Clayton and Bell, grisaille glass to
tower window.
The church although altered, is important to the history of
Lichfield, and preserves many original features; the steeple
is a prominent landmark in the city.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: London:
1974-: P.190; Lichfield Heritage and Treasury Exhibition:
Lichfield: 1981-; Victoria History of the County of Stafford:
Greenslade M W: Lichfield: Oxford: 1990-: P.140-3).

Listing NGR: SK1176109547

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Online. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 27 October 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Mary's Church, Lichfield at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7594364

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

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)