Description

TQ7999
719/37/518

WOODHAM FERRERS
MAIN ROAD (West side)
CHURCH OF ST MARY

10-APR-1967

GV
I
Parish church. C13 and C14, restored C19. Flint, some brick and ashlar dressings; slate and plain tiled roofs. Nave, nave aisles, chancel, south porch and north vestry.

EXTERIOR: west end with C19 arched brick opening partly glazed replacing early C16 tower collapsed in 1715. To right and left are remains of flushwork arcading. One 2-light early C14 reticulated west window to south aisle, mouchette tracery to north aisle. C19 timber and weatherboarded belfry with octagonal broach spire. Aisles both with early C14 moulded doorways and 2 2-light reticulated windows to flanks; one similar window to east ends. Timber south porch on brick plinth with 6 bays of formerly open arches (glazed in C19), each with cinquefoil cusping. Elaborate crown post roof with moulded timbers and moulded ashlaring and arched braces to the crown purlin. Timber benches to east and west, with opening lids for storage. 3 C19 segmental windows to clerestory north and south set within splayed C13 openings. 2 bay chancel with stepped buttresses, diagonal to south-east corner. South chancel with 2 early C14 2-light windows and one 3-light Perpendicular window. 5-light late C19 Perpendicular east window. North chancel mostly obscured by a large vestry under a catslide roof erected 1849 with a prominent flint and stone chimney: One 2-light early C14 window with a quatrefoil vesica.

INTERIOR: 3-bay arcade of c.1260 consisting of alternating octagonal and circular piers on moulded bases and with undercut capitals. Double chamfered arches. Traces of paint on piers, especially a complete C14 secular head on north-west pier. Splayed clerestory openings. North aisle with 2 C13 round-headed niches. C13 scissor-braced nave roof with collars and 4 tie beams; north aisle roof of moulded C15 rafters and purlin; south aisle roof of plain chamfered timbers, probably C19. Former tower arch with remains of early C16 double sunk chamfer mouldings to jambs but no arch. Chancel arch with double chamfered arch on semicircular responds. Painting of Doom over chancel arch, probably C15: very faint with traces of reds and ochre colours depicting central Christ flanked by angels and with a frieze of souls below Chancel with triple sedilia under depressed arches and a double C13 piscina to east with trefoiled arches. Arched C13 vestry door to north.

FITTINGS: fine wall monument in chancel to Cecilie Sandys, died 1610, monument erected 1619. Alabaster, with a kneeling figure in profile set within an architectural surround of block entablatures on Corinthian columns with a deep shell hood decorated with rose trails in the form of a bower. 2 victories on top and a standing figure of Time to the left. Corresponding figure on the right missing. 4 C15 stalls in chancel, with poppy-head bench ends. Plain C14 octagonal font. Circular C19 pulpit with panelling.

Bibliography
(Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England), An Inventory of Essex South East, 1923, Vol. 4

Listing NGR: TQ7978299398

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17536464

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014