Description

OFFTON BILDESTON ROAD
TM 04 NE
6/135 Church of St. Mary
9.12.55
- I
Parish church; mediaeval, mainly C14 and C15. Nave, chancel, west tower,
south porch. Flint rubble, mainly plastered but the east chancel wall is in
knapped flint of 1861. Freestone dressings. Plain-tiled roofs, with, at the
east end, a parapet gable. The plain round-arched south aoor represents the
C12 core of the building, but most features are of C14. These include: 3-
light dagger-traceried east windows (this was restored or rebuilt 1861), and
several 2-light side windows with curvilinear tracery, north doorway, a simple
chancel piscina and a stoup inside the south door. Good and quite complete
mid C14 south porch of timber on a mid C20 brick plinth: a heavy 2-centred
doorway with ogee sidelights and cusped bargeboards; mullioned windows have
different tracery in the head on either side, and the tie-beam and wall-plates
have typical C14 mouldings. The tower is basically mid C14, with a 2-light
west window with good tracery and grotesque corbels, and a quatrefoil sanctus
bell window. The upper stage of the cower was remodelled or rebuilt c.1500;
the battlemented parapets have flushwork panels with traceried heads and the
belfry windows have tracery of this date, with grotesque gargoyles above.
C.1500, the nave was re-roofed in 3 bays; each truss has unusual long square
crownposts with ribbed corners, moulded capitals and bases and 4-way knee-
braces. The cornice is embattled and moulded and the tie-beams have shafted
wall-pieces bearing arch-braces with leaf carvea spandrels. Two opposing nave
windows are of stuccoed brick with heavy hoodmoulds and different early C16
tracery. The early C16 south priest's door has graffiti (R.T.1586) on a jamb.
Two sections of a well-carved C14 or C15 roodscreen, one converted to
choirstalls, the other is in the tower. The stairs to the former roodloft are
in the north wall. A fine C15 font of limestone, the octagonal bowl has
angels with shields and roses, further supporting angels beneath, and lions at
the angles of the stem. An early C17 octagonal pulpit has arcaded panels. A
north nave window has in stained glass the original arms of De Bohun (Lords of
Offton Manor 1312-77); other windows have more fragmentary mediaeval glass.
Some good late C19 stained glass in the chancel and the cower. A marble
floorslab in the chancel of 1682 and two others of C18.

Listing NGR: TM0661349637

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17526346

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

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)