St Mary's Church is a
redundant Anglican church in the village of
Mundon
Mundon is a village and civil parish on the Dengie peninsula in Maldon District in the county of Essex, England. It lies 3 miles south-east of Maldon. The manor of Munduna passed from the king's thegn Godwin to Eudo Dapifer at the Norman Conques ...
,
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 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 ...
,
and is under the care of the
Friends of Friendless Churches
Friends of Friendless Churches is a registered charity formed in 1957, active in England and Wales, which campaigns for and rescues redundant historic places of worship threatened by demolition, decay, or inappropriate conversion. As of April ...
.
History
The oldest fabric in the present church dates from the 14th century. The church is built within the
moated enclosure of Mundon Hall. It is thought that an earlier church existed on the site, possibly dating back to the
Anglo-Saxon era, as it is situated on St Peter's Way, an ancient pilgrim's route to
St Peter's Chapel, Bradwell. In addition the
font, which has been removed, was dated to about 1200. The tower, with its timber
belfry, was erected in the 16th century.
[ The north porch was added in about 1600.][
By 1684 the church had fallen into disrepair. During the following century it was rebuilt in brick on the old foundations. In the 19th and 20th centuries the population of the immediate locality declined, and the fabric of the church deteriorated again. In addition it was damaged by the blast from a V-bomb during the Second World War. Although some repairs were undertaken after the war, church services were held elsewhere, and in 1974 the ]parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
was transferred to St Mary's in Maldon
Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced ...
. The church was taken into the care of the charity
Charity may refer to:
Giving
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing
* C ...
the Friends of Friendless Churches during the following year.lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
with effect from 1 January 1975. Since its acquisition repair and conservation work has been carried out, assisted by a grant of £140,000 from English Heritage. From September 2009 the church has been open to visitors.[
]
Architecture, fittings and furnishings
The plan of the church consists of a 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 ...
with a north porch, a 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 ...
, and a tower supporting a belfry; around the tower is a semi-octagonal 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 ...
.[ The nave is constructed in plastered stone ]rubble
Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...
, the chancel is in brick, the aisle around the tower is timber-framed
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...
, the belfry is weatherboarded, and the roofs are covered in red tiles.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 ch ...
s and an 18th-century octagonal pulpit. On the chancel walls, also dating from the 18th century, are paintings of the Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
, the Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
, the Creed, and other texts.[ Above the east window is a ]mural
A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.
Word mural in art
The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...
depicting curtains being drawn aside, with hanging tassels, "in a rare rural attempt at trompe l'oeil
A trompe is a water-powered air compressor, commonly used before the advent of the electric-powered compressor. A trompe is somewhat like an airlift pump working in reverse.
Trompes were used to provide compressed air for bloomery furnaces ...
".[
]
References
Further reading
*
External links
St Mary's Church on Essex Churches website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mundon, Saint Mary
14th-century church buildings in England
Grade I listed churches in Essex
Churches preserved by the Friends of Friendless Churches
Church of England church buildings in Maldon District