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CHER Number:	00327
Type of record:	Building
Name:	Saint Mary's Church, Stow cum Quy

Summary - not yet available

Grid Reference:	TL 515 599
Parish:	Stow cum Quy, South Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire

Monument Type(s):

CHURCH (12th century to Modern - 1101 AD to 2050 AD)

Associated Finds:

BRASS (Medieval to 19th century - 1066 AD to 1900 AD)

Protected Status:

Listed Building (II*) 1179413: Parish Church of St Mary

Full description

R1. The parish church of St Mary stands at the extreme SW corner of the village. The walls are of flint and field stones with limestone and clunch dressings; the roofs are covered with tiles and lead. The church consists of a chancel, nave, N & S chapels, N & S aisles, and W tower. C12, there is evidence of a C12 church in the survival of part of a round headed window in the S wall of the nave but the size of the church to which it belonged is unknown. This window indicates an aisleless nave of the C12. C13, in the first half of the C13 an arch was made in the E end of the S wall of the nave, probably opening into a transeptal chapel. A similar arrangement can be inferred on the N. C14, the church was considerably transformed in the first half of the C14 when the chancel was rebuilt, all four bays of nave arcading inserted on the N, three bays of the S arcade continued to the W, and the N and S aisles added; most of the former S transeptal chapel and the N wall of the N chapel were allowed to remain. The W tower was built late in the C14. C15, the addition or rebuilding of a clerestory took place c.1500. C17, in 1665 two chancel windows, then partly blocked, were ordered to be opened. C18, under faculty of September 1739, the E wall of the chancel was taken down and rebuilt 18 feet further W. C19, in 1879 the church was restored by William White of London; the upper stage of the tower, which had been removed c.1800 and replaced by a wooden belfry, was reconstructed in stone and flint.
Furniture and fittings:
Bells: Five, C17.
Benefactor's table: In N aisle, records C17 benefactions from estate of Robert Lawrence, described and ill R1.
Door: To ringing chamber, cut down Med.
Font: C15, ill R1.
Floor slab: In nave, of several members of the Lawrence family, laid down in 1675.
Monumental brass: In nave, of John Ansty (d after 1455) mid C15, described and ill R1.
Monumental brass: In S chapel, of Edward Stern d 1614, with indent for second plate, ill R1.
Monumental brass: Indent, in nave, C15.
Wall Painting: In nave on S wall, 2 areas of painting, one possibly St Christopher, Medieval, and to W of this, remains of inscription, perhaps C17.
Piscina: In N chapel, C14.
Piscina: In S chapel, C14.
Recess: N of chancel arch, unknown date.
Screen: Under chancel arch, early C15, fully described and ill R1.
Stone fragment: In N aisle, 2 fragments of tabernacle work and a carved head, C14 or C15.
Stoup: In N aisle, recess with mutilated bowl, Med. For architectural description of the church and a fuller description of these and later fittings, see R1.
R4. Built of fieldstones dressed with ashlar, it consists of a chancel, a nave of four bays, aisled and clerestoried, and a W. tower. From the C12 nave survives part of a small round-headed window over the S. arcade. In the early C13 the nave walls were apparently pierced by transeptal chapels. The entrance arch of the S. transept has been incorported in the S. arcade. The three-stage W. tower, whose diagonal eastern buttresses are inserted into the nave, was probably built c.1300, receiving stepped west buttresses and a W. window later in the C14. Aisles were added soon after 1300, widening at the east ends into the former chapels. The new nave arcade, of four bays on the N., three new ones on the S. has double chamfered arches over rounded attached shafts. The chancel, formerly 44ft long is also early C14. Its high altar was consecrated in 1346. Its W. end retains two-light windows of that period. The octagonal font, with panels containing shields supported by demi-angels, is C15.

RCHM, 1972, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Cambridgeshire. Volume II. North-East Cambridgeshire, 90 -92 (Bibliographic reference). SCB13360.

Pevsner, N., 1954, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, 1954, 461 (Bibliographic reference). SCB17744.

Le Strange, R., 1972, A Complete Descriptive Guide to British Monumental Brasses (Bibliographic reference). SCB11968.

Wareham, A.F & Wright, A.P.M., 2002, The Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, Volume 10 (Bibliographic reference). SCB19536.

Sources and further reading