The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a

Grade II* listed 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 ...

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church in the village of

Glynde Glynde is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, United Kingdom. It is located two miles (5 km) east of Lewes.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

. It was built in the 1760s by Richard Trevor, bishop of Durham, whose family seat was the adjacent

Glynde Place Glynde Place is an Elizabethan Manor House at Glynde in East Sussex, England. Situated in the South Downs National Park, it is the family home of the Viscounts Hampden, whose forebears built the house in 1569. It is a Grade I listed buildin ...

History

There was a medieval church, which stood at an angle to the present building; little is known about it. A new church was built on the site by Richard Trevor, who was Bishop of Durham from 1752 to 1771, and a member of the Trevor family who owned Glynde Place. It was designed by

Sir Thomas Robinson Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham, (c. 169530 September 1770), of Newby, Yorkshire, was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British diplomat and politician who sat in the British House of Commons, House of Commons between 1727 and 1761. Early l ...

, who had worked for Richard Trevor on his Bishop's Palace in County Durham. The work was done by John Morris, a builder from the nearby town of

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

.Glynde - St Mary
Sussex Parish Churches. Accessed Jan 2014. The demolition of the old church, which was in a poor condition, began on Monday 1 August 1763. The foundation and vault of the new church were built that year; the superstructure was built in 1764; the building was completed in 1765. The first service in the new church took place on Sunday 30 June of that year. A newspaper at the time reported that it is "a neat and elegant building, and is very decently ornamented."

Description

Sir Thomas Robinson had visited Italy and was enthusiastic about

Renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

: the church is built in

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

style.British Churches Album
www.roughwood.net. Accessed Feb 2014. The walls are faced with

knapped flint In architecture, flushwork is decorative masonry work which combines on the same flat plane flint and ashlar stone. If the stone projects from a flat flint wall then the term is proudwork, as the stone stands "proud" rather than being "flush" w ...

and have an

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

base. In the tympanum of the

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

above the west wall, the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

of Richard Trevor is displayed in

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

. Above the pediment is a bell, housed in an open ashlar belfry. The space inside is a perfect rectangle, except that the

communion table Communion table or Lord's table are terms used by many Protestant churches—particularly from Reformed, Baptist and low church Anglican and Methodist bodies—for the table used for preparation of Holy Communion (a sacrament also called the '' ...

is in a recess in the thickness of the east wall. There is a

coved ceiling A coved ceiling is a ceiling that has had the visual appearance of the point where the ceiling meets the walls improved by the addition of coving. It can also refer to a ceiling, like in a Mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid ...

. Most of the interior details, including the

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in chu ...

s, are contemporary with the building. In 1841 a gallery, to accommodate more people, was built at the west end.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glynde, St Mary's Church Grade II* listed churches in East Sussex Church of England church buildings in East Sussex

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...