St Mary the Virgin Church is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

parish church in the village of Wendens Ambo in

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, 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 Riv ...

, England. It is listed Grade I for its architectural, historical and topographical value. It originally served the village of Wenden Magna (Great Wenden), which was merged with Wenden Parva (Little Wenden) to form Wendens Ambo in 1662.

Architecture

The building consists of 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. ...

with organ chamber, an aisled

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-typ ...

, a south porch and a tower surmounted by a Hertfordshire spike. The

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 ...

in the western end of the south aisle, is unusually positioned.

Tower

The oldest part of the structure is the 11th century tower. It is usually described as Norman. However, it could be pre-

Conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, ...

on the basis of a series of round window openings, like portholes: these small openings are found in

Anglo-Saxon architecture Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England from the mid-5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Britain were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with tha ...

and are sometimes called 'sound holes' although their actual function is unclear. The ones at Wendens Ambo are similar to late Saxon windows in

St Bene't's church St Bene't's Church is a Church of England parish church in central Cambridge, England. Parts of the church, most notably the tower, are Anglo-Saxon, and it is the oldest church in Cambridgeshire as well as the oldest building in Cambridge. Th ...

in Cambridge.

History

The first church on the site was probably constructed of wood, perhaps as early as the eighth century, but no trace of it remains. It seems to have been rebuilt in stone about the time

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

was written (1086 A.D.) with later additions in the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th centuries. The church register of Great Wenden commenced in 1540. After Volume II, which was the register of Little Wenden until 1662, the two parishes were united as Wendens Ambo.

Churchyard and hall

In the 19th century Lord Braybrooke gifted land and a hall neighbouring the church to enable an extension to the ancient churchyard. The hall was extensively modernised in 2007 and under lease to the Village Hall, is managed for use by a variety of active village interest groups and activities.

References

External links

* *http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/essex/vol1/pp329-332 *http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/essex/vol1/plate-91 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wendens Ambo, St Mary the Virgin's Church Wendens Ambo Churches with a Hertfordshire spike Wendens Ambo English churches with Norman architecture