Saint Mary the Virgin

L'église St Mary est une charmante petite église pleine de caractère et d'intérêt historique, située dans le pittoresque village d'Elmley Castle, dans le Worcestershire.

The church of ST. MARY consists of a chancel 25 ft. by 16 ft., nave 57 ft. by 19½ ft., north transept 20 ft. deep by 16½ ft. wide, north aisle to the west of it, 9 ft. 10 in. wide, and south aisle 10 ft. wide, a north porch, and a western tower 18½ ft. wide by 14 ft. deep; all the measurements are internal.

The church dates from a very early period, the walling of the chancel, which was shorter than the present one, belonging to about the end of the 11th century. The plan at that time consisted simply of nave and chancel, and doubtless much of the original stonework remains in the present nave, though many of the carved stones belong to 12th-century alterations. The first addition of which there is any definite evidence took place early in the 13th century, when the unusually wide tower was erected at the west end of the nave, which may have been lengthened at the same time. About 1340 the church was considerably enlarged, the north transept and the south aisle being added. The chancel also was lengthened by some 5 ft., evidently to form a narrow vestry behind the high altar. The north aisle was an addition of the latter part of the 15th century, the earlier transept arch being retained as the easternmost bay of the arcade and a cross arch constructed in place of the west transept wall. At the same time a new column was substituted for the first pier in the south arcade and the top stage was added to the tower, a new west door and window being inserted. In the early part of the 16th century the transept was heightened and new windows inserted to form a chapel for the Savage family, the alterations amounting practically to a rebuilding. The north porch underwent considerable repair in the first half of the next century, and it is not improbable that the western half of the south aisle was rebuilt in 1629, the date inscribed upon a stone between the two westernmost windows in the south wall. To the same date belongs also the embattled parapet of the north aisle. Prattinton, who wrote in 1817, mentions a semicircular end to the chancel; it was probably an 18th-century addition and has now been removed. The chancel was restored in 1863, when the east wall was rebuilt, a new roof put up, and new tracery inserted in the side windows. The round chancel arch, which is said to have been of wood, was rebuilt at the same time. The chancel also underwent a general restoration in 1878, when the nave and aisles were re-roofed.

The modern east window, put up by Lieut.-General Davies to the memory of his parents and brothers, is of three lights with a traceried head; a 14th-century doorway opening into the former vestry behind the altar is now walled up, and traces remain of a corresponding door in the south wall. The first of the two windows on the north is of two lights under a traceried two-centred head; the second also has two lights with a quatrefoil over; the tracery and mullions of both are modern, but the jambs are old, those of the easternmost dating probably from the early 15th century, while those of the western window appear to be of the 14th century. The two windows on the south side correspond in all respects with those opposite. Between these windows and visible on both sides of the wall is the herring-bone work of the late 11th century, and at the west end of the south wall is a short length of plinth course. The chancel arch is modern and springs from corbels. In the east wall of the nave flanking it are niches for figures; the one to the south is complete with its square head, but of the other only the lower parts of the jambs remain.
The nave arcades each consist of four bays. The first bay on the north side has a square jamb on the east with a 14th-century pointed arch of two chamfered orders dying on it. The rest of the arcade is of late 15th-century date and has octagonal columns with simple capitals and bases and pointed arches of two chamfered orders. The arches on the south side are similar to the first bay on the north, but the first column is octagonal and similar in detail to the later work opposite. The second and third piers and the western respond are square, the arches dying on them, and the east respond is dispensed with. The rood stair formerly existing in the angle of the north transept and the nave has been removed, but the blocked doorways remain. The east and north windows of the transept are both 16th-century insertions, though not quite contemporary. The former, which was of five lights, is now blocked by the large tomb of the first Earl of Coventry (fn. 130); the north window has three lights with sunk spandrels under a flat head. The transept has an embattled parapet both to its side walls and to the low north gable. In the aisle wall west of the transept is a raking stone showing the position of the former steep gabled roof. The cross arch towards the aisle, which stands somewhat east of the line of the transept wall, belongs to the 15th-century work and springs from the first column of the arcade. The two north windows and the west window of the north aisle are all original and have three lights with feathered tracery in a square head. The entrance doorway between the two north windows has a two-centred drop arch, and is evidently a 14th-century doorway removed here from the former nave wall. The porch has in its west wall a diminutive and almost shapeless light. The outer doorway has continuous mouldings and a semicircular head with a moulded label. Set in the side walls are many 11th and 12th-century stones carved with various beasts, foliage, and diapering.
The porch is strengthened by diagonal buttresses, and its parapets, with those of the aisle, are embattled with continuous copings; above the porch doorway is a small trefoiled niche. Set in the aisle wall below the string are two gargoyles with grotesque human and animal figures.

The east window of the south aisle is a 15th-century insertion of three lights under a pointed traceried head. To the north of it outside is a shallow buttress, above which can be seen the quoined angle of the original nave. In the south wall of the aisle is a small ogee-headed piscina of 14th-century date the bowl of which has been cut away. The first window on the south is a later insertion with three lights under a square traceried head. The second window appears to be contemporary with the aisle and has two narrow lights with a quatrefoil above them, the jambs being of two chamfered orders. The third window is modern, and the fourth, of two lights under a pointed head, appears to be an insertion of the 16th or 17th century. Between the last two windows is a stone inscribed 1629 F.F.
The tower is of three stages with a pointed tower arch of two chamfered orders springing from moulded abaci. The respond of the inner order is corbelled back to the face of the jambs a little below the level of the abacus. It is evidently part of the original early 13th-century tower, as is also the small lancet window in the south wall. The west doorway and window above it are 15th-century insertions. The doorway has a two-centred drop arch with a moulded label, and the jambs are of two orders. In the north and south walls of the second stage are large 13th-century lancet windows now filled in. The third stage or bell-chamber is lighted by transomed windows of two lights in each wall, with a quatrefoil above them in a pointed head. The parapet is embattled and has grotesque gargoyles at the angles. The walling of the lower part of the tower is of small rubble with wide jointing, and the third stage is ashlar faced.

The walling of the church generally is of rubble, varying in the different parts of the building. Besides the herring-bone work in the chancel wall the other parts of the earlier work are of uncoursed rubble. In the east gable of the nave are several ancient carved or worked stones. The parapets generally are of ashlar. The roofs are all gabled and modern.

The font has a 13th-century square base carved with four dragons around a circular stem. The bowl dates from about 1500, and is octagonal, with plain panels inclosing shields carved with the Five Wounds, the rose, feathers, a portcullis, a trefoiled leaf with a bar on the stem, an indented fesse, and a ragged staff. In the pewing of the south aisle are four turned legs, which probably belonged to the 1637 communion table mentioned in the churchwardens' accounts. There are also four standards for misericordes. A large number of 16th-century pews with moulded rails remain in use. An old stone bowl now in the transept was brought from a farm at Kersoe.

In the north window of the transept are two pieces of old glass; one is a panel inclosing the arms of Westminster, and over it is a crowned rose, party palewise red and white, a royal badge of the Tudors. In the south-east window of the south aisle are a few other old fragments, including a crowned red rose and the quartered lilies and leopards of France and England.

In the transept are two large monuments. The first is an alabaster altar tomb, with a black marble slab on which rest the three recumbent effigies of William Savage, Giles Savage, who died in 1631, and his wife Catherine. The latter holds the figure of a posthumous daughter. At their feet are the kneeling figures of their four other children. On mural slabs above the tomb are placed the inscriptions, arms, &c. The second large monument, against the east wall, is to the first Earl of Coventry, who died in 1699; it is of Renaissance design, and has a white marble effigy of the earl reclining on his elbow under a canopy of the same material, supported on Ionic columns flanked by large allegorical female figures. In the cleft pediment are the Coventry arms and crest with allegorical figures at the sides. The monument, which was refused admittance to Croome D'Abitôt Church by the second earl, was erected by the countess dowager, who in 1700 married Thomas Savage of Elmley Castle. On the south wall of the chancel is a mural monument to Anne daughter of Sir Richard Fetyplace, 1609; and another, opposite, to E. G. died 1668, has Corinthian capitals and a broken pediment, but has lost its columns. An undated slab in the floor commemorates William Ganderton. In the north aisle below the second window is a tablet to Elizabeth wife of Thomas Harper, vicar of Elmley, who died in 1609.

Part of a 14th-century coffin slab with a cusped cross stands in the north transept.

Mention may be made here of the curious sundial which stands in the churchyard; it is a square pillar, on the south face of which is the dial above a carving of the Savage arms in a shield of ten quarters as they appear on the tomb in the north transept.

The bells are six in number: the first a treble of 1700; the second cast by Henry Farmer, 1619; the third with the inscription 'Eternis annis,' &c. (upon this bell are the heads of a king and queen) (fn. 131); the fourth by Matthew Bagley, 1686; the fifth an old bell, said to have been of 1556, recast in 1886; and the sixth a tenor bell of 1620.