St Mary
Fairford
Gloucestershire
Base of tower early C15, remainder completely rebuilt by John Tame
Architectural Features
his son Edmund, from c1480 into early C16.
Tower of 2 stages above clerestorey with string courses, corner buttresses with large carved figure to each, rising to twin pinnacles, and with pierced quatrefoil parapet.
Playful stone carving on the south wall, above the porch -the "climbing boy", apparently with his head screwed on backwards, clambering on to the ledge.
Aisles of 7 bays with 4-light windows with stepped buttresses between bays and carved heads on string course above each window and on hoodmould stops.
On south side, porch in bay 3 from west with large pointed archway and square hoodmould with carved spandrels and niche wth Virgin and Child over, panelled internal walls, fan vaulted ceiling and original studded oak door with postern set into it.
Interior: 4-bay nave arcade with 16 shafts to piers, moulded ridge beam and principals supported on stone angel corbels.
Octagonal font.
Some early masonry survives in tower, with remains of wall paintings.
Contemporary wood screens to choir, carved choir stalls with misericords probably brought from elsewhere.
SP1501 : St Mary, Fairford: misericords
The stained glass forms an almost unique intact series of windows, c1500, painted largely by Barnard Flower, Henry VII's Master Glass Painter.
"The Last Judgment" - medieval glass installed under direction of Barnard Flower, glazier to Henry VII.
Three monuments to the Tame family - chest to John Tame and his 2 wives, in Purbeck marble between the Choir and Lady Chapel, under the parclose screen.
SP1501 : St Mary, Fairford - Wall monument
One floor and one wall brass to Edmund Tame within the Lady Chapel.
Chest tomb to Roger Lygon and wife Katharine, widow of Sir Edmund Tame II, erected 1575, also in Lady Chapel.
A detailed account of the interior and in particular of the stained glass is given in the local church guide, and in David Verey, The Buildings of England, Gloucestershire: the Cotswolds, 1979.