← Database

Saint Mary

Market Drayton

Shropshire

C14 tower with C12 doorway and remains of C14 work in nave and chancel.

Architectural Features

Red sandstone ashlar (with some grey sandstone in tower) with C20 tile patching.

Large angle buttresses with chamfered offsets, hollow-chamfered plinth, moulded string to belfry, coved parapet string with carved gargoyles, and battlemented parapet with moulded coping and crocketed corner pinnacles.

C15 or C16 second-stage west window of three ogee trefoil-headed lights with transoms, cinquefoil-headed lower lights, flowing tracery with quatrefoils, double-chamfered reveals, and returned hoodmould.

Small carved head in wall at apex of window.

Round-arched C12 west doorway of two orders of (former) shafts with chevron ornament to outer arch, hoodmould, and pair of C19 nail-studded boarded doors with strap hinges.

Each window set in recess flanked by buttresses with chamfered offsets and with carved fleurons to top edge.

Battlemented parapet with moulded coping, carved gargoyles and parapeted gable end with moulded coping.

Aisles: chamfered plinth, cill string, parapet string and parapet with moulded coping and carved corner gargoyles.

Chamfered- and moulded-arched south doorway in second bay from east with broach stops, quarter shafts with moulded capitals and bases, hoodmould with carved foliated stops and boarded door with strap hinges.

North doorway in second bay from east with chamfered arch, hoodmould with carved stops, and boarded door with strap hinges.

Chancel: chamfered plinth, flush buttresses flanking east end with chamfered offsets, moulded parapet string with carved gargoyles and battlemented parapet with moulded coping and carved lion at west end.

Restored C14 windows to north and south of three trefoil-headed lights with intersecting tracery and hollow-chamfered reveals.

Large east window of four trefoil-headed lights with intersecting tracery, blind panels below low transom, chamfered reveals and hoodmould with carved heads as stops.

Vestry: chamfered string, parapet string and parapet with moulded coping and gargoyles.

INTERIOR: restored 5-bay arcades consisting of circular piers with hollow-chamfered bases (those to south with broach stops), moulded capitals to north (except for second from west with 15 carved heads), waterleaf capitals to south, and double-chamfered arches.

4-bay nave roof with tie-beams, brackets with pieced spandrels springing from carved head corbels at cill level, king posts and subsidiary struts with carved cusped panels between, and pairs of purlins.

Nave roof timbers also springing from 5 carved stone corbels on west wall.

Eastern arch with C19 moulded imposts and arch with roll moulding and inner and outer chamfers (moulding and outer chamfers dying into responds. West wall with remains of possible former clerestory door high up to left with chamfered reveals. Small chamfered ogee- headed blocked opening above tower arch and line of former steeper roof pitch. West door with round rear arch. Windows with chamfered rear arches. Chancel arch consisting of half-octagonal piers with moulded capitals and hollow-chamfered bases, and arch with inner chamfer and outer roll moulding. Former rood-screen doorway high up to right consisting of four-centered archway. Small chamfered opening above chancel arch and line of former steeper roof pitch. 4-bay chancel roof with moulded tie- beams and pierced braces springing from carved wooden winged angels. 5 stone winged-angel corbels on the east wall and 4 moulded stone corbels on the west wall with round arch over opening at apex. Chamfered north and south arches at east ends of aisles (that to north with organ) with half-octagonal shafts.

Doorway to north vestry with chamfered reveals, hoodmould with carved stops, and boarded door with strap hinges.

Square aumbry to north with pierced wooden door incorporating reticulated tracery, C14 piscina to south with continuous moulded arch, ribbed soffit,moulded bowl with 8 flutes and mouled cill.

Carved and painted wooden altar and reredos with pierced ogee-headed panels, vine trails, crocketed buttresses and heraldic crests.

Brass altar rails.

Carved wooden choir stalls.

Carved wooden chancel screen, by Kempe, and screens to organ chamber and 2-bay south aisle chapel, each with pierced ogee tracery, carved frieze and cresting.

Brass lectern.

Octagonal stone pulpit with moulded base.

Ogee panels with marble colonnettes crockets and finials, and carved band to top.

Carved wooden altar in south aisle chapel with 3 panels inscribed: "BEHOLD THE LAMP OF GOD", and large carved wooden triptych above with figures of saints in canopied niches.

Octagonal wooden font in north aisle with trefoiled panels to stem and bowl and plain wooden cover.

Late C17 parish chest.

Encaustic tiles.

Stained glass: that in east window of 1895, in south aisle of 1901 and 1903 and in north aisle of 1904, all by Kempe.

West window glass by Shrigley and Hunt.

Monuments: stone tablet in south aisle to William Church and his son Richard , with flanking scrolls and segmental pediment with shield.

Stone tablet in chancel to Dame Anne Corbet , consisting of a cartouche with swags, flanking putti, winged angel at base etc. Tablet in south aisle to Sir John James Markham signed by Joseph Wilton, with mourning female figure to right and urn to left.

There is a local tradition that Robert Clive , later to become Lord Clive of India, climbed the church tower and sat astride a gargoyle when he was attending the grammar school (q.v.) nearby.