St Mary's Church stands on Church Hill,
Lawford
Lawford is a large village and civil parish in the Tendring district of northeast Essex, England. It is approximately northeast from the centre of Colchester and west of, and contiguous with, Manningtree. Mistley merges with the east side of M ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
, England. It is an active
Anglican parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
in the deanery of Harwich, the archdeaconry of Colchester, and the
diocese of Chelmsford
The Diocese of Chelmsford is a Church of England diocese, part of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers Essex and the five East London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, and Waltham Forest (most of which wer ...
. The church is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
as a designated Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
History
The oldest fabric in the church is in the south wall of the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
, dating from 1200 or earlier. The
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
, the south porch and the first tower were built in 1340. The tower was rebuilt in the 16th century, and again in the following century. In 1826 the north wall of the nave and the north
aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...
were added.
In 1853, when the rector was
Revd Charles Merivale (later the
Dean of Ely
The position of Dean of Ely Cathedral, in East Anglia, England, in the Diocese of Ely was created in 1541 after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The first Dean of Ely had been the last Benedictine prior of Ely.
List of deans
Early mode ...
), the interior of the chancel was
restored by the
Lancaster architect
E. G. Paley.
vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...
and meeting rooms, and in 2009 the roof and tower were repaired and parts of the interior of the church were modernised.[
]
Architecture
The church is constructed in flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...
, septaria
A concretion is a hard, compact mass of matter formed by the precipitation of mineral cement within the spaces between particles, and is found in sedimentary rock or soil. Concretions are often ovoid or spherical in shape, although irregular ...
and brick, with limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
dressings and a tiled roof. The plan consists of a three- bay nave with a south porch, a north aisle, a chancel, a north vestry, and a west tower with a stair turret
Turret may refer to:
* Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building
* Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon
* Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope
* Mi ...
on the southeast. In the chancel are a 14th-century piscina
A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman Ca ...
and a triple sedilia
In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass for the officiating priest and his assistants, the ...
. The octagonal pulpit dates from about 1906.[ In 1906 a two- manual pipe organ made by ]Norman and Beard
Norman and Beard were a pipe organ manufacturer based in Norwich from 1887 to 1916.
History
The origins of the company are from a business founded in Diss in 1870 by Ernest William Norman (1851–1927). In 1876 he moved to Norwich where he we ...
was installed. This was replaced by an electronic organ made by Copeman Hart in 2005.[ There is a ]ring
Ring may refer to:
* Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry
* To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell
:(hence) to initiate a telephone connection
Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
of three bells, dated 1667, 1714, and 1907.
External features
The churchyard contains the graves of the war poet Robert Nichols and his father John Bowyer Buchanan Nichols, also a poet. The grave of the Canadian politician John Robertson also lies in the churchyard, as do the war graves
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regu ...
of a soldier and two airmen of the Second World War.
See also
*List of works by Sharpe and Paley
Sharpe and Paley was a partnership of two architects who practised from an office in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, between 1845 and 1856. Founded by Edmund Sharpe in 1835, the practice flourished for more than a century, until 1946. It ha ...
Notes
It was unusual for Paley to accept a commission so far from his office. Brandwood et al. consider that the introduction must have been made by Paley's previous partner in the practice, Edmund Sharpe
Edmund Sharpe (31 October 1809 – 8 May 1877) was an English architect, architectural historian, railway engineer, and sanitary reformer. Born in Knutsford, Cheshire, he was educated first by his parents and then at schools locally and in ...
, who had been an undergraduate at St John's College, Cambridge, at the same time as Merivale, and both men rowed for the college.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawford, St Maru's Church
Church of England church buildings in Tendring
Grade I listed churches in Essex
English Gothic architecture in Essex
E. G. Paley buildings