St Mary

The chancel is C14.

Clerestory late C15 or early C16.

C14 with late C15 phases.

The chancel is C14, rebuilt in the C19,

has Decorated style two-light N and S windows and a large C15 style E window with vertical tracery.

The N aisle is c1480, and the clerestory is late C15 or early C16.

Late C15 N door with a four-centred head and a contemporary door, the bottom repaired.

The elaborate S door, re-set during the C19 rebuilding of the aisle, is probably early C16, and has a pointed opening set within a square surround, with good use of fleurons and blind tracery in the spandrels.

C14 niche with a modern statute above the door.

the door handle is C13 and has a large pierced plate and an oval ring with two lizards.

Tall C15 W tower is embattled and has diagonal buttresses and a polygonal SE stair turret.

Three-light C15 W window with vertical tracery, small square openings in the middle stage, and two-light windows in the upper stage.

INTERIOR Late C15 N arcade of four bays with quatrefoil piers, polygonal moulded capitals and hollow chamfered arches.

The C19 S arcade is copied from that on the N. C15 chancel arch with embattled capitals.

Tall C15 tower arch of two orders, the inner on half-round shafts with polygonal, moulded capitals.

A stoup in the S aisle made from a late C13 or C14 capital and partial, round shaft may have come from a former S arcade.

The late medieval nave roof has false hammerbeams and large tie-beams that now conceal steel steelwork inserted in 1983.

Two of the hammers retain figures, and the mortises for others are visible.

Very fine late C15 N aisle roof, with arched braces on wall posts with stone corbels, embattled wall plates and carved bosses, including the arms of the de Vere family.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES Re-set C13 handle on S door, with a round, pierced plate and an oval ring with lizards or dragons.

Inside the S door, a stoup made from a remodelled C13 or early C14 capital and shaft.

C15 chancel screen with perpendicular tracery, retaining its original doors, re-coloured in the C19.

Two sets of late medieval benches in the nave: those on the N with square ends and shallow buttresses.

Those on the S have shaped ends and large poppyheads with figural carving depicting St George and the dragon, St Michael weighing souls, birds in foliage, an angel with a shield etc. Probably C17 font, polygonal with simple traceried panels and armorial shields.

Early C17 pulpit with two rows of blind arcading.

In the N aisle, brass to Robert Wyburgh, with an inscription recording his construction of the N aisle in 1480, also a brass in the nave to Joan Bury N aisle E window, 1970s by Pippa Heskett, and a few fragments of medieval glass in the clerestory.

The earliest surviving fabric is the C13 or early C14 capital and shaft reused as a stoup, which may have come from the former S aisle, and the C13 door handle.

The chancel was rebuilt in the C14.

The chancel arch is C15, and the N aisle was built or rebuilt in 1480 by Robert Wyburgh.

The clerestory is late C15 or early C16.

A S aisle was probably demolished in the post medieval period.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St Mary, Withersfield, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Extant of medieval fabric, and quality of the Perpendicular fabric * Notable fittings, including the C13 door handle, bench ends, screen, brasses, pulpit and font. * Careful Victorian restoration.