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St Mary

Great Canfield

Essex

Chancel and nave, early C12.

Architectural Features

Nave extended in C13.

S porch, C15.

Flint rubble with some Roman bricks, dressings of Barnack stone, roof tiled.

The chancel (7.87 x 6.36 metres) has in the E wall 2 round-headed windows separated internally by a round-headed recess, all C12.

In the N wall are 2 round-headed windows, C12, one of which is concealed by the organ.

the eastern is lancet of the C13, partly restored

the western is C19 except for the splays and square head, C15

between the windows is a doorway with chamfered jambs and 2-centred head, double-chamfered label and round rear-arch, C13.

The round chancel arch has a roll-moulded edge with one carinated fillet and double billeted label, and the responds have attached shafts with moulded bases and a cablework ring above, scalloped capitals with cablework ring and double-chamfered abaci, mainly C12 but with some restoration.

the eastern is C14 and has 2 trefoiled and sub- cusped ogee lights with tracery under a square head

The western window is round-headed, C12.

Further W is the C12 N doorway

the jambs have attached angle-shafts covered with incised chevron fluting, and having cushion capitals with zigzag carving on the under-slopes and moulded bases with spur-ornaments

the easternmost is a C13 lancet, restored

the westernmost is a C13 lancet, restored.

W of the second window is the C12 S doorway, similar to the N doorway but with more elaborate detail

the cushion capitals are each carved with a mask, the eastern with pelleted ribbons issuing from the mouth, the western with 2 birds pecking the beard

the arch has a roll-moulded edge with 2 carinated fillets between it and an outer roll moulding, a double billeted label and a tympanum carved with zigzag ornament in concentric semi-circles and enclosed by a cable-border.

The nave has been extended to the W by about 4.5 metres (the RCHM found it to be 3.3 metres) to accommodate a timber-fronted bell-turret, C15, consisting of 4 posts with arch-braced tiebeams, clad externally with weatherboards, with pointed lights in the N, S and W walls, with C19 shingled spire.

The C15 S porch has a moulded plinth and an embattled parapet with drip-moulded string-course arid containing in the middle of the S side a cinquefoiled niche with a square head

The date is uncertain, C14 or C15.

This roof also is of C14 or C15 construction.

The C15 roof of the S porch has moulded and embattled wallplates and moulded main timbers, partly restored.

There are 3 bells, one by Miles Gray, 1634, one possibly by John Dier, C16, and the third by John Hodson, 1664.

In the floor of the chancel there is (1) a brass of John Wyseman, auditor 'of the revenue of the crown' to Henry VIII, and of Agnes his wife, 1558

figures of man in armour, and woman, both kneeling before prayer-desks

behind them, figures of 4 sons and 6 daughters

four shields of arms (2) a brass of Thomas Fytche and Agnes (Wyseman) his wife, 1588

figures of man in armour, woman, 3 sons and 3 daughters (3) a stone slab of Elizabeth (Wiseman), wife of Robert Tyderleigh, 1654 (4) a stone slab of Elizabeth (Capell), wife of Sir William Wiseman, Bart., 1660, with a lozenge of arms (5) a stone slab to Anne, Lady Wyseman, 1662, with a shield of arms.

On the S wall of the nave there is a monument of Sir William Wyseman, Bart., 1684, and Anne (Prescott) his wife, 1662, formerly mounted on the E wall of the chancel

tablet with half-length figures of man and woman flanked by Ionic columns supporting entablature and segmental pediment with a cartouche of arms.

In an arched recess in the E wall of the chancel, formerly covered by the monument to Sir William Wyseman, there is a painting of the Blessed Virgin suckling the Child, who is seated on her lap

the edge of the arch has painted foliage, and below the figure are masonry lines and a consecration cross in white on a red circle.

Pevsner says this painting 'is one of the best C13 representations of the subject in the whole country, full of tenderness ..

The date must be circa 1250 (cf. the Matthew Paris manuscripts)' There is a stoup in the W jamb of the N doorway, part of a rough basin hollowed out of the front.

Below the W window there is a 5-metre length of oak panelling, circa 1600.