St Mary The Virgin

The chancel is c.1230.

The S aisle was added to the nave c.1250, and the lower part of the tower was built in the late C13.

The N wall of the nave was rebuilt in the mid C14, and the top of the tower was added or rebuilt in the C14 or C15, when the chancel arch was enlarged.

EXTERIOR Chancel N and S walls have 3 C13 lancets, heavily restored.

In the S wall there is a C13 pointed doorway with chamfered jambs, and to the W of it a low side window with a rounded head, probably widened from a lancet.

The nave N wall has three C14 windows, the eastern is pointed and of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head.

The S wall has evidence for a blocked 3-bay C13 aisle.

The eastern bay has a large, C19 window in an C13 style.

The arcade is mid C13 and is of two chamfered orders on octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases.

The middle bay appears to have been blocked in the C15, and the other two bays were blocked and the aisle demolished at an unknown later date, perhaps in the C18 when the S porch was built.

There is no W door, only a C13 lancet in the W wall.

INTERIOR The chancel arch is probably C14 and has two chamfered orders, the outer continuous, the inner on polygonal responds with moulded capitals.

The tower arch is of one chamfered order of the late C13.

The nave roof is C15 and has two king-post trusses with curved braces and traceried spandrels.

It sits on large head sop corbels, probably C14.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: C12 Purbeck marble font, with a square bowl on a shafted stem.

Damaged C13 or C14 piscina in chancel.

Also in chancel, a possibly C13 cupboard in the N wall

a recess behind the altar, possibly C14.

There are medieval tiles in the chancel floor and red tiles of the C17 or C18 in the porch.

Royal arms of George I. Stained glass: some C14 fragments, some of it in situ, in the nave N windows.

Monuments include a fragment of a late C12 or early C13 head stone or coffin lid with a richly ornamented cross head and the letters GRE, and several late C18 and early C19 wall tablets inside the church.

HISTORY Shoebury (North and South) is mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, but the church was not mentioned.

The church had been given to nearby Prittlewell Priory before 1170, although there is no surviving fabric of this date.

The late C12 or early C13 fragment of a graveslab may be the remains of a patron's tomb for the building or rebuilding of that date.

SOURCES Buildings of England: Essex , 704-5 RCHME Essex IV , 101-2, includes plan.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St Mary the Virgin, Southend on Sea, Essex is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Excellent surviving medieval fabric of the C13 and later. * Nave roof of the C15. * Good medieval fittings, including piscina, tiles and some fragments of glass. * The blocked C13 S aisle retaining the arcade is an interesting historical curiosity.