Listed Building Description
Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
EWELME PARSON'S LANE SU6491 (South side) 8/121 Church of St. Mary 18/07/63
GV I
Church. Early C14 west tower, rest of c.1432, north porch rebuilt 1832, south porch repaired 1874. Mixed flint and limestone rubble; banded knapped flint and ashlar limestone to porch; red brick crenellated parapets to clerestory and aisles; roof covering not visible. Aisled nave, chancel with chapel to St. John the Baptist to south, and west tower. Perpendicular style. Porch to right with Tudor archway, and paired trefoil lancets to left and right returns. C15 double-leaf door with Perpendicular tracery pattern, ribbing and studding to flattened 2-centre moulded stone arch with quatrefoil carving to spandrels and hood mould. Water-stoop to left of door. Ribbed wooden roof to porch. Three 3-light stone Perpendicular tracery windows to aisle with diamond-leading and hood moulds. Stepped buttresses between aisle windows. Seven 2-light trefoil-topped stone mullion windows to clerestory with hood moulds. Moulded string-course to clerestory parapet with carved stone faces between windows. Tower to right has 2-light stone Y-tracery louvred opening to top with hood mould, crenellated stone parapet. Left return: knapped flint and ashlar limestone in chequer pattern. 5-light stone Perpendicular tracery window to chancel. 4-light stone Perpendicular tracery window to chapel at left, 2-light stone mullioned window with triangular cusped tracery top to vestry at right. Rear: Open timber frame porch to left of centre of aisle with C15 ribbed and studded door. Three 3-light stone Perpendicular tracery windows with splayed reveals and hood moulds. C15 ribbed and studded door to left of chapel, with quatrefoil carving to spandrels and hood mould. Two 3-light stone perpendicular tracery windows with splayed reveals and hood moulds to'chapel. Seven 2-light trefoil-topped stone mullion windows to clerestory with hood moulds. Moulded string course to clerestory parapet with carved stone faces between the windows. Tower to left has 2-light stone Y-tracery louvred opening to top with hood mould; crenellated stone parapet. Interior: Moulded 2-centre arched arcades to aisles with piers of clustered columns, and carved angels bearing shields to spandrels, except to south of nave, which has blank shields to the spandrels. C15 ribbed roof, with feather-bodied angels with out-spread wings to intersection of beams to chapel roof. Octagonal bowl font with quatrefoil carving with sheilds to each side, on a base panelled with blind ogee arches. The spectacular wood cover, presented by John, Duke of Suffolk, after the death of his mother in 1475, is of 4 tiers of cusped and crocketted arches with figure of St. Michael at apex; counterpoise is a carved Tudor rose. Chest tomb to Thomas Chaucer (d.1434), and his wife, Matilda Burghersh (d.1436) with fine brasses to top and painted coats of arms to sides, in chapel. Alabaster chest tomb to Alice, Duchess of Suffolk (d.1475), between chapel and chancel with decorated arched canopy; effigy wearing coronet, robes and Order of the Barter; angels under canopies to sides; beneath in traceried base, stone cadaver. C15 wood screens, shortened in 1844, restored in 1925. Reredos and altar to chapel by Sir Ninian Comper, 1902. History: Earlier church, dedicated to All Saints was rebuilt c.1432 at the expense of the Earl and Countess of Suffolk. The countess (nee Alice Chaucer) was born in Ewelme in 1409, the daughter of Thomas Chaucer, the lord of the manor, and grand-daughter of Geoffrey, the poet. She married William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk in 1430 (created Duke of Suffolk 1448). He "for love of his wife and the commodity of her lands felt much to dwell in Oxfordshire". They rebuilt the church, established the adjoining almshouse and built the school. The use of brick, in the church parapet and the other buildings, is one of the earliest in the county. (Malcolm Airs "Ewelme" Archaelogical Journal, Vol.135, 1978, pp.2