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Summary

The Church of St Mary is in the 'Advanced Decorated' style. Listed Grade I.

Monument Types

• ANGLICAN CHURCH (MED:C11,C12,C14/PM:C18, Early Medieval/Dark Age to Post Medieval - 1000 AD to 1799 AD)
• WAR MEMORIAL (PM:C20, Modern - 1921 AD to 2050 AD)

Protected Status

• Listed Building (I) 1260342: CHURCH OF ST MARY

Associated Finds - None

Associated Events - None

Full description

St. Mary's Church, Roxby, possible Saxon work in tower, Decorated, 19th cent. restoration (Pevsner 1964, 345; and info. Rev. E Thornley, 1976). [1]

E 91 NW ROXBY CUM RISBY NORTH STREET (north side)
5/9 Church of Saint Mary 6.11.67 GV I
Church. C12 tower with C14 west window, C14 nave arcades, aisles and chancel. Tower repaired and top stage rebuilt 1704-7. Restorations of 1875, by James Fowler of Louth, included rebuilding north arcade, north aisle and tower arch, new porch, organ chamber, floors, roofs and font. Coursed limestone rubble with limestone ashlar dressings. Slate roof. West tower, 3-bay aisled nave with south porch and 2-bay chancel with organ chamber/vestry adjoining north side. 2-stage tower: chamfered plinth, quoins. Tall first stage has square headed 2-light trefoiled west window with stone above inscribed ROBERT RAMSEY, CHURCH WARDEN 1704. South side has keyhole window below plain string course. Top stage has square-headed twin round-arched belfry openings with ovolo mullions in chamfered reveals beneath a low embattled ashlar parapet dated 1707 on south west corner. North aisle and organ chamber have chamfered plinth and gabled buttresses with finials. South aisle and chancel have moulded plinth and buttresses with trefoiled gables, those to chancel with pinnacled gablets to the set- offs. Aisles have square-headed windows of 2 trefoiled lights (one in south aisle with sub-cusping and 2 in north aisle C19 replacements) and pointed 3- light east windows with Curvilinear tracery, hoodmoulds and headstops; north aisle east window now open to organ chamber. Chancel has 2-light north and south windows similar to aisles, and a pointed 3-light east window with Curvilinear tracery. Pointed chamfered priest's doorway on south side has ogee-headed hoodmould with foliate finial and plank door with ornate iron strap-hinges. Porch has chamfered plinth, angle buttresses, a pointed moulded outer door and circular trefoiled side windows. Moulded pointed inner door under ogee hoodmould with carved finial and head stops. Interior. Tall pointed tower arch on shafted responds. Arcades have double-chamfered pointed arches supported on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases, those on north C19 replacements. South arcade capitals have plain corbels projecting on south side. South aisle has a trefoiled piscina and a C14 tall double-chamfered pointed-trefoiled tomb recess containing a mutilated priest's effigy. Above is an empty niche with a moulded corbelled base and a cusped and pinnacled ogee-arched head beneath a pyramidal crocketed and pinnacled canopy flanked by buttress shafts. Pointed moulded chancel arch of 2 orders on narrow octagonal responds with plain moulded capitals and bases. Chancel has triangular-headed aumbry on north side, and on south side a trefoiled piscina and ornate C13-14 double sedilia with octagonal shafts with moulded capitals and bases supporting sub-cusped, crocketed and finialed ogee arches flanked by octagonal shafts with finials. C19 pointed arches to organ chamber. Polychrome encaustic tiles in chancel. Two late C18-early C19 marble wall tablets in tower. N. Pevsner and J. Harris, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 1978, p 345; Drawing by C. Nattes, 1794, Banks Collection, Lincoln City Library.
Listing NGR: SE9206817017 [2]

Pevsner was of the opinion that the church tower had Saxon origins, 'on the evidence of one small s(outh) window.' [3]

The church clock acts as the First World War memorial for Roxby. It was erected in 1921. [4]

St Mary has an example of a ‘Lincolnshire Tower’, a distinct class of bell tower constructed during the 40 years after the Norman conquest. Although the tower has been rebuilt, the first floor window in the south wall was enough evidence to place it in the 'late derivative' group of Lincolnshire Towers, belonging to the first half of the 12th century.

The owner of the church at Domesday was Ralph Pagnell. He gifted the church, its appurtenances and tithes to Holy Trinity Priory in York in 1089, and the original tower was probably built during their ownership. The church was later passed on to Drax Priory.

Some churches with these towers were built in public spaces at the instigation of local sokemen, and others were within or near manorial enclosures, associated with the tenants in-chief of the new Norman lords. At Roxby, the Pagnell manor had 23 sokemen occupying more than half of its land, and St Mary's was placed in what was then a large public area of village green, north of South Street. [5] NB this reference contains much detail on the architecture of the church, its location within the village, and its relation to similar Lincolnshire Tower churches in the historic county.

<1> Loughlin, N and Miller, KR, 1979, A Survey of Archaeological Sites in Humberside, 211 (BOOK). SLS523.

<2> English Heritage/NMR, 2005, Listed building system data in MIDAS XML format, 440985 (COMPUTER DISK/TAPE). SLS2963.

<3> Pevsner, N, 1964, The Buildings of England - Lincolnshire (BOOK). SLS2977.

<4> M Hemblade, 2013, Untitled Source (PERSONAL OBSERVATION). SLS6341.

<5> Stocker, D and Everson, P, 2006, Summoning St Michael: Early Romanesque Towers in Lincolnshire, 242-245 (BOOK). SLS6553.

Sources and further reading

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