Description

REED CHURCH LANE
TL 33 NE (East side)
Reed
3/143
Church of St. Mary
27.5.68
- I

Parish church. Early C11. Chancel rebuilt mid C14. Tower of C13 or C14
raised with other alterations in C15. Restored with S porch added 1863-4
by Slater. Coursed flint rubble with Barnack stone and clunch dressings.
Red brick repair. Some cement rendering. Tiled roofs. Small rectangular
nave with narrower, shorter and lower chancel, W tower, S porch. Nave
has original long and short quoins flush with walling at all 4 angles,
splayed at base but not continued as a base-course except from W angles
where a second higher splay also continues as a plinth onto tower. To N
on nave a blocked doorway of C11 or early C12: crudely executed round
arched surround, broadly roll moulded outer face to inner archivolt,
clunch tympanum, continuous splayed abaci, inner shafted jambs with
incised voluted capitals, square cut outer order. Flanking restored C15
2 light windows, rectilinear tracery in square heads with hollow moulded
surrounds. C19 stone course projects to close eaves. Nave to S has 2 C19
windows copying those to N, C19 S porch has a pointed arch with shafted
jambs, 2 stage diagonal buttresses, coped gable parapet, 2 light windows
with square heads in returns. Inner entrance is a C14 pointed arch,
double wave moulded, hood mould with foliate stops, to right a
semi-octagonal stoup, an early plank door with iron strap hinges and
lock plate. Chancel: cement rendered E end with a restored 5 light
pointed arched window with reticulated tracery. 2 stage diagonal
buttresses. Chancel N and S C14 2 light windows towards nave with foiled
and cusped pointed heads, restored to N and remade to S in C19. Brick
courses to sprocket eaves. Ridge crosses on E gables of chancel and
nave. Gable end parapet on nave to W. Tower of 3 stages is unbuttressed
and quoined. Raised plinth, string courses separate stages. To W are
traces of a blocked doorway with a pointed arched head, above in lower
stage is a restored 2 light window as in chancel N and S walls. Louvred
lancets in second stage to S and to all sides in belfry, chamfered brick
and stone surrounds. Parapet is embattled to all sides but E with much
red brick repair. Weathervane finial. Interior: C15 pointed tower arch,
2 chamfered orders dying into jambs. C19 chancel arch of 2 wave moulded
orders, shafted responds. C19 roofs: 4 bays in nave with arched braces
from short colonnettes on corbels, chancel has a ceiled 7 sided vault.
At NE angle of nave are steps formerly to rood loft. In N jamb of tower
arch a C14 recess with an outer ogee arch. Font has a C15 octagonal bowl
with carved rosettes and shields on splayed lower faces, C20 square
panelled stem. Early C17 communion table with bulbous turned legs. On SW
wall of nave a lead memorial with a low relief allegorical figure, to
T. Cherry, Church Warden, and W. Mowbray, Plumber, 1807. (East Herts
Archaeological Society Transactions, vol.2, part 3, 1904, p.261: RCHM
1910: VCH 1914: H.M. Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 1965: Pevsner
1977).

Listing NGR: TL3613235748

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17529041

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

• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5