History

Probably built in the C14; tower added slightly later; restored 1900 by G.E.Halliday.

Exterior

A small country church. It is built of sandstone rubble, partly roughly coursed and partly random, has stone slate roofs, and consists of an unbayed nave with a S porch, a small chancel and an added W tower.
The tower is square on plan and of 3 undifferentiated stages, with battered but unbuttressed walls and a pyramidal roof. It has no doorway and no other external opening from which it could be entered: just one very small arched lancet to each side of the 1st stage, with little hood moulds; an even smaller chamfered lancet in the N and S sides of the 2nd stage; and small square-headed belfry windows with 2 cusped ogee-headed louvred lights and hoodmoulds.
The nave, which is only slightly wider than the tower, has on its S side, offset slightly W, a relatively large open-fronted gabled porch consisting of chunky stone side walls (with inner side benches) carrying an arch-braced timber-framed roof, open to the front and with wavy bargeboards. The inner doorway is chamfered and 2-centred, and turned at the apex to form a diminutive ogee. To the left of the porch is a restored square-headed window of 2 cusped ogee-headed lights; and towards the E end of this side is a large square-headed chamfered mullion window of 3 tall lights, under a hoodmould which has sunk-square stops. In the centre of the N side is a low buttress, to the right of which is a part-restored C14 2-light window arched like the S doorway, with a moulded surround, 2-centred arched lights and a quatrefoil in the head. The E end of this wall breaks out slightly (housing a rood stair) and has a small square-headed window of 2 trefoil lights with hollow spandrels. On a higher level just round the corner of the gable wall is a tiny candle-shaped window (lighting the head of the rood stair).
The S side of the chancel has a narrow 2-centred arched priest door, a small rectangular window to the left with diamond-lattice glazing, and a restored window of 2 arched lights to the right. The E gable has a Victorian 2-light Decorated window; and the N side has 2 small chamfered rectangular windows.

Interior

The nave has a C15 or C16 barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling divided into square panels by narrow ribs with small lozenge bosses, and both side walls have moulded and brattished wallplates. At the NE corner is a recess with a quarter-spiral of steps leading to a Tudor-arched doorway to the former rood loft. The chancel arch, which is 2-centred and chamfered, is set immediately behind a highly unusual tall cinquefoil superarch, perhaps designed to frame the rood. At the W end the tower arch is formed partly of the converted C14 W window, which is deeply splayed and has slender keeled shafts. The inside of the C14 window in the N wall matches it in style.
The chancel has a C15 or C16 arch-braced single-rafter roof, and on its N wall is a wall monument to John Evans (d.1704), richly carved, with a broken segmental pediment and a foliated apron with a cherub. In the centre of the W end of the nave is a C15 octagonal font, the pedestal with a splayed foot and heavily ribbed and carved (including shields), and the bowl, which is a C19 copy in white stone, surrounded by large interlaced hearts.

Reasons for Listing

Listed as a small medieval country church of simple architectural character.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• St Mary's Church at Wikipedia
• St Mary's Church official website
• Wikidata Q17744334

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5