Description

PRESTON

SD5429 ST MARY'S STREET
941-1/7/262 (West side)
27/09/79 Church of St Mary

GV II

Church. 1836-8, by John Latham, with transepts and chancel
added 1852-3 by E.H. Shellard. Punch-dressed sandstone ashlar,
slate roof. Nave on north-south axis with south tower flanked
by square wings, east and west transepts, chancel. Romanesque
style, with round-headed windows throughout. Tripartite south
front formed by 4-stage tower with 3-storeyed 1st stage
flanked by wings to the same height and gabled to west and
east respectively, each element with clasping pilasters and
those of the wings finished with squat pinnacles, each with a
round-headed doorway at ground floor, all in Norman style but
that in the centre larger and with 3 orders of unorthodox
moulding, the centre with 3-light windows on 2 levels (the
lower with blind outer lights), the date "MDCCCXXXVI" in
raised Gothic lettering between them and a corbel table above,
and the wings with one small window to the front, a similar
wndow in the side and a 2-light window in the gable. Above
this level the tower proceeds in 3 stages successively set
back, the 2nd and 3rd with 2-light windows which have cushion
capitals to the shafts, and the 3rd (originally replicating
turrets at west end of Tewkesbury Abbey) carrying a needle
spire with lucarnes mounted on a drum with corner cylinders
(from which the pinnacles have been removed). The 5-bay nave
has pilaster strips and tall round-headed windows set in blank
arches. The transepts have clasping buttresses finished as
square 2-stage turrets with blind arcading to the upper and
pyramidal caps, the east transept has a round-headed doorway
in the centre, and both have round-headed lancets. The
chancel, lower than the north gable of the nave, has 3
round-headed lancets and a circular window above. INTERIOR not
inspected.

Listing NGR: SD5483529683

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Mary's Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q16526405

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)