Description

TL 7525 BRAINTREE
691/5/63 CHURCH STREET
25/10/51 (Northwest side)
Bocking Church Street

Church of St Mary The Virgin

I

Parish Church. C14 chancel, mid C15 nave and aisles, early C15 west tower, late C15 chancel chapels and south porch. Flint with ashlar dressings; lead roofs.
EXTERIOR: west tower begun 1415. 3 stages, the lower stage to west side faced with ashlar. Base course with crosses in rectangular panels. Arched and moulded west doorway within square surround and with shields in quatrefoils in the spandrels. Embattled string course below 3-light pane[-tracery west window. Stepped angle buttresses rising to corner pinnacles at the Crenellated parapet, with a taller, broader, pinnacle at the south-east corner serving stair turret. 2-light belfry windows.
South aisle with 3 3-light Perpendicular windows with pane[ tracery. Plain parapet. South porch of 1490-1520: arched and moulded entrance (restored C19) flanked by a cinquefoiled niche right and left, each with a late C20 figure. Angle buttresses. Crenellated parapet to front and returns. 2 2-light side windows each side. South door c. 1260, oak, with 4 vertical planks decorated with scrolled ironwork, and with a hoodmould on head stops. North aisle with 3 3-tight Perpendicular windows as south aisle and an arched and moulded north doorway. Parapet. Parapeted clerestory north and south added 1490-1520, with 4 3-light pane[-tracery windows.
Chancel with crenellated north and south chapels of 1490-1520, that to south with 2 3-light Perpendicular windows to south and one to east, the last under a segmental arch; angle buttresses. North chapel with one segmental and one arched 3-light window. Under the west window an arched priest's doorway. One small arched lancet towards east end. 5-light reticulated east window. 2 2-light chancel clerestory windows north and south. South chancel with one very tall triple-transomed window with arched lights, rebuilt 1913. In front of this are mid C18 square-section railings with scrolled top rails and elaborated stiles. Flint and brick rood stair turret to north with 3 brick windows above a string course, the mullions with sunk quadrant mouldings. INTERIOR: 4-bay nave arcade, the piers with 4 hollows and 4 shafts and rounded capitals. Double wave-moulded arches. Nave roof of c. 1520: moulded ridge piece, purlin and principals, with bosses at main intersections, and solid arched braces to wall posts with carving. Similar aisle roofs of mid Cl5, with multiple roll-moulded timbers.
Chancel with 2-bay north and south chapels, with piers of c. 1490 displaying continuous double-wave mouldings into the 4-centred arches without capitals. One arch on south side with organ of 1905 by Norman & Beard.
FURNISHINGS. Rood screen by Sir Ninian Comper, 1910. Centre part erected in that year: 4 bays either side of wider central opening, all with elaborate tracery heads. Dado panels with blind tracery. Ribbed coving to west side; pierced parapet. Rood figures installed 1950. Additional side screens erected 1955, modified from a Comper design: both of 2 and one bays either side of 4-centred central opening. Cusping to tracery heads, and cusping to dado panels. Ribbed west coving and tall pierced parapet. Octagonal Perpendicular font with tracery decoration. Gilded reredos, c. 1920, with 5 carved saints either side of central carved Christ in Majesty. Monument to Grisell Moore, died 1624, in north chancel chapel. Alabaster and marble: figure kneels before a prayer desk within architectural frame consisting of 2 Corinthian columns supporting open pediment. Achievement over.

Listing NGR: TL7568925684

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17535793

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.

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