St Mary Magdalene

Galleries on N, S and W. EXTERIOR The C15 W tower has a moulded W door set in a square frame, with contemporary Spanish blue and white tiles in the spandrels.

Their parapets copy the tower, and they have C15-style windows.

Reredos with pilasters, entablature and riddel posts in N apse as a monument to Rev. W S Smith HISTORY The chapel of St Mary Magdalene was built as a chantry chapel probably in the C14,

subsequently rebuilt or extended in the C15, when the present tower was built.

By the late C18, the old chapel had become too small for the growing population of the town, and it was rebuilt in a contemporary style but retained the medieval tower, following a collection made in 1784-5.

It was stripped of many liturgical furnishings in the 1970s, when the pulpit and choir stalls were removed and the altar moved forward.

SOURCES Buildings of England: Essex , 135 RCHME Essex IV REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of St Mary Magdalene, Billericay, Essex is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Excellent C15 brick tower with C19 side extensions on a good brick preaching-box church of the later C18. * Internally it has galleries of 1845 to N, S and W. * The combination of late medieval tower with tall Georgian body, a fusion of Gothic and Classical form, is usual and possesses high townscape value.