Church of St Mary Virgin Eastry, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

EASTRY CHURCH STREET TR 3154 (east side) 13/116 Church of St.Mary 11.10.63 The Virgin GV I Parish church. C12 in origin, largely C13. Restored 1847 to 1902 and particularly 1853. Flint with plain tiled roof. Chancel, nave with aisles, south porch, western tower with lean-to annexes. Four stage tower with clasping buttresses thickened at base to octagonal shape and pierced with pointed arches (possibly over the processional path). Blank almond and circular shaped panels in buttress upper stages. Three lancets on main stage in trefoiled arcading with attached shafts. Corbelled top stage. North-eastern rectangular stair turret. C12 Romanesque doorway behind C19 pentice with hollow and roll- moulded orders and attached shafts. Lintel and tympanum altered 1853. Romanesque windows also in north and south walls of tower. Lean-to aisles with quatrefoil west windows. Fine C18 clock face on west wall of tower with egg and tongue circular surround. Largely C19 renewed fenestration, trefoiled clerestorey windows. Lancets survive in chancel, 5 on each side, with buttresses (one on south side with mutilated Sheila-na gig carving). North aisle with two C15 three light windows with square label heads. Single chamfered south doorway with hoodmould in small south porch. Interior; tower arch and nave arcades on same C13 pattern, with round piers or responds on moulded bases with beaded capitals and double chamfered arches. Similar arches in tower to side annexes with flying buttresses to tower, that to north finely moulded and of late C13 date. Five bay nave arcade (the eastern arch pinched). Central southern pier a later insertion, octagonal but with similar mouldings to rest of arcade, with additional stylised foliation on abacus. Continuous hood mould carried over arches. Two string courses at clerestorey level, one forming base of clerestorey windows, the other raised over to form drips. Roof of 6 renewed slender crown posts. Lean-to aisles. Double chamfered chancel arch, the inner order carried on polygonal corbels with stiff-leaf sprig. Pierced quatrefoils to left and right, and upper stage of nave east wall stepped back. The quatrefoils pass through to trefoil headed arched reveals in chancel. Five bay chancel, with 2 string courses, the upper raised over windows to form drips as in nave clerestorey. The south eastern window has a discontinuous string with the reveal carried down to the lower string, the other window reveals are all splayed. Triple lancet west window with trilobed heads and detached, ringed shafts. Small roundel in gable head. Braced rafter roof. Fittings; piscina in chancel and large moulded and cusped piscina in north aisle;another in south aisle. Aumbry with arched head in north wall of chancel. Altar rails, reredos, candelabra, font box-pews all C19. C18 chandelier in tower of 2 tiers of 5 branches over 10. The octagonal inserted pier in the nave bears a Dominical Circle to compute Holy Days, carved in 1327 and very rare. Wall Paintings; over chancel arch, 4 tiers of roundels, Cl3, 28 of them in all with devices of a trefoil flower, doves, lion and dragon, associated with the rood (corbels survive for a rood loft). Two C18 painted text cartouches nave north wall, dated 1721. Two hatchments of the Bargrave family and sculptured Royal Arms over tower arch, dated 1821 and given by Thomas Moulden of Statenborough House. Monuments; brass in the chancel to Thomas Nevynson, d.1590. Figures of ruffed Knight and his Lady, almost 3 feet long with inscription and arms , reset before the altar Iron tilting helm hanging on wall above surmounted by Nevison crest. Wall monument to John Broadley,d.1784, signed J. Bacon, London, 1785. Medallion portrait bust with oak leaf wreath, the staff and snake of the medical profession and obelisk shaped background. Edward George Bays, d . 1801, wall plaque of an urn in half relief signed Coade and Sealy,Lambeth. Monuments in south aisle to Thomas Pettman, d.1791, wall plaque with urn on reeded