Church Of St Mary The Virgin, South Benfleet
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The Church of St Mary the Virgin is the
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...
of
South Benfleet South Benfleet is a town in the Castle Point district of Essex, England, 30 miles east of London. It is adjacent to the village of North Benfleet. The Benfleet (SS7) post town includes South Benfleet, Thundersley, New Thundersley and Hadleigh, ...
,
Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
. The church dates to around the 12th century, and predates the neighbouring
Hadleigh Castle Hadleigh Castle is a ruined fortification in the English county of Essex, overlooking the Thames Estuary from south of the town of Hadleigh. Built after 1215 during the reign of Henry III by Hubert de Burgh, the castle was surrounded by par ...
, which lies to the east a few miles away. The church was designated as a Grade I
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
in 1952.


Architecture


Exterior

The oldest part is 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 ...
which dates to around the 12th century. Over the next 100 years, the
Chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
was built; it later received various alterations and refurbishments in the 1400s. The three-stage west tower was the last stone section of the building to be built, in around the 1300s. The building has a wooden south porch which dates to the 1400s. At around the same time, the north aisle and
clerestory A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...
were added. There were numerous repairs made in the 1600s and further refurbishments carried out in the 1800 and 1900s, most notably by the English architect Sir Charles Nicholson."Church of St Mary the Virgin"
''
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, ...
'' (NHLE),
Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...
, accessed 13 March 2019.
The stone work is predominantly ashlar, rubble, flint and has some Roman brick. The building has a central moulded
hammerbeam roof A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams proj ...
with moulded, arched braces and is covered by red plain tiles. The tower has clock faces to the north and south walls.


Interior

The Chancel has a roof of four bays, and four-armed octagonal
crown post A crown post is a term in traditional timber framing for a post in roof framing which stands on a '' tie beam'' or '' collar beam'' and supports a ''collar plate''.Alcock, N. W.. Recording timber-framed buildings: an illustrated glossary. Londo ...
s with moulded capitals and bases. There is a
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. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...
which dates to the 1400s. Most of the stained glass dates to mainly the 1800 and 1900s and was designed by Nicholson's brother, Archibald; there is some medieval glass to the east and north-west windows. The panelling of the choir walls were designed by Sir Charles Nicholson with decoration by his mother. Nicholson also designed the traceried screen and features on it, with decoration by his daughter, Barbara. There is a font, the base of which dates to the 1200s, with a much later bowl. The pulpit is from the 1900s. The church organ was built to the designs of Nicholson's younger brother, Sidney, who later became the organist at
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
and was the founder of the Royal School of Church Music.


Churchyard

Sir Charles Nicholson, who died in 1949, is buried on the south side of the west tower in a family tomb that also contains his wives, Evelyn Louise, Olivier, who predeceased him and who was an aunt to the actor
Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...
, and Catherine Maud Warren.Godfrey, W. H
Nicholson, Charles Archibald, second baronet
''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...
'', Oxford University Press, 2004, 23 September 2004, accessed 12 July 2018.
Just adjacent to the church yard, at the junction of Essex Way and the High Street, is the Grade II-listed South Benfleet War Memorial, also designed by Nicholson. Other churchyard monuments include a table tomb from the 1720s which belongs to James Matthews, a local farmer and hoyman. The inscription reads "''Sixty three years our Hoyman sailed merrily around. Fourty four lived parishioner where he's aground. Five wives bear him thirty three children. Enough, land another as honest before he gets off''." The monument is listed at Grade II, as are a group of four, 1800 headstones to Catherine and Robert Hewson (d.1776); Mary Nash (d.1760); and John Greenway (d.1736). The stones are around 18 and 22 yards southeast of the south porch.Group of 4 headstones
''
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, ...
'' (NHLE),
Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...
, accessed 13 March 2019.


References


Sources

*{{cite book, last1= Pevsner , first1=Nikolaus , author1-link=Nikolaus Pevsner , last2=Cherry , first2= Bridget , last3=O'Brien , first3=Charles , date=2007 , title=Essex , series=
The Buildings of England ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
, volume=5 , place=London , publisher=
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...
Grade I listed churches in Essex South Benfleet