St Mary The Great

Nave and aisles begun 1478 but not completed until c.1520.

W tower begun 1491 but not completed until 1606.

It is c.1490-1550 to the top of the W window, with the upper part added in 1593-1608.

The W door is C19 and replaces a late C16 Elizabethan door.

INTERIOR A lofty interior, particularly notable for the rich decoration on the arcades and the survival of the C18 aisle galleries. the chancel E window is C14 internally and there is also evidence for former C14 N and S doors and windows.

There is an early C14 tomb recess in the chancel, and C14 two ogee-headed statute niches flanking the E window.

The arches to the chancel chapels are late C15.

Screens closing the entrance to the chancels from the aisles were made up in the C19 from parts of the C18 pulpit.

Very fine late medieval roofs in the nave, aisles and chapels with carved bosses and openwork tracery in the spandrels of the braces

There is a further C18 roof designed by James Essex above the medieval nave roof.

N and S aisle doors are early C16

those in the chapels are late C16, as is that to the rood stair.

The N tower screen wall door is C17

that on the S is C15.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES Remains of a C14 double piscina and sedilia in the chancel, and two C14 statue niches flanking the E window.

Late C15 piscina in the S aisle.

Excellent and very unusual font of 1632, polygonal, with strapwork cartouches on the bowl and Renaissance foliage carving on the stem.

The cover is also C17.

Late medieval chest, much restored in the C19.

Some C16 or C17 poppyheads survive on the C17 benches at the back of the galleries.

Good nave benches of 1863 with finely carved poppyheads, and C19 choir stalls, also with poppyheads.

Organ of 1698, rebuilt in 1870, in a fine late C17 case.

Very good C19 pulpit of 1872, with openwork tracery

Wooden eagle lectern of 1867.

Some late C19 and early C20 glass.

The clerestory windows, installed 1902-4, use portraits of noted Victorian clergymen for the faces of the apostles.

Clock face of 1679 on the tower.

Many monuments, mostly wall and floor tablets.

Notable monuments include an early C14 tomb recess in the chancel, probably for John of Cambridge, d. 1335,

William Butler, d. 1617/8, an alabaster wall tablet with a half-figure flanked by putti.

Also many good C18 wall tablets, and a number of palimpsest ledger slabs made from former brass indents.

A small brass plaque marks the former burial place of Martin Bucer, d. 1551.

HISTORY There may have been a church on this site, adjacent to the marketplace, before the Conquest, and it was certainly in existence by the late C12 or early C13, when it was known as St Mary-by-the-market.

It was used by scholars of the nascent university from their arrival in 1209.

There was a fire in 1290,

the chancel was rebuilt in the early C14 and consecrated in 1351.

The rest of the church was entirely rebuilt from the late C15.

The work began in 1478

carried on into the early C16.

The nave roof was being framed in 1506, the altar in the Lady chapel was set up in 1518, the nave seats were made in 1519.

The W tower was begun in 1491

by 1550 it had only reached the height of the W window.

The bell chamber was complete by 1596,

the top of the tower was finished in 1608.

The medieval pulpit was replaced by a new one (now in Orton Waterville church) in 1618.

A three decker pulpit and box pews were also installed in the mid C18.

The Elizabethan W door of 1576 was replaced by a Gothic-style door in 1850-1 by Gilbert Scott, and the old vestry was demolished and the chancel re-clad in 1857 by Anthony Salvin.