Gargoyles on St Mary & All Saints' church, Willingham.
"The parish church of Willingham, dedicated to Saint Mary and All Saints, consists of a clerestoried nave with north and south aisles, a chancel with sacristy, tower with pinnacles and spire, and a porch on the south side. The sacristy, screens, roofs, and wall paintings add to its general interest, and to-day it is one of the finest in the county.
A few stones with architectural details of great interest survive from the church or churches which preceded the existing building. During the restoration of the chancel, carved voussoirs, caps, bases, mouldings and angle shafts, evidently from a rich doorway of the Norman church were found built into the walls. In addition to these fragments, a portion of a rough shaft with cubical capital attached was found; this is most probably work of the early eleventh century, and came from the Saxon Church which preceded the Norman.
This Saxon capital is in the porch, built in on the south east side of the door, above the quaint corbel with two faces carved upon it.
The Saxon and Norman fragments, including some billet and other mouldings, will also be found in several places in the porch.
The present church dates mainly from the early Decorated period, but when the restoration took place, traces of Early English foundations were discovered in the nave, with aisles of six feet six inches internal width running the whole length of the nave. The lancet window at the west end of the south aisle was part of this church; but, judging by other foundations, at a still earlier time the nave was only half its present length, ending at the third columns of the existing nave.
The lower parts of the walls of the chancel were found to be of the Norman period, with thinner walls of a height marked by chamfered clunch facing of the thirteenth century, and the remains of lancet windows. There are also parts of Early English windows built into the east and west walls of the south aisle. The whole of the south wall of the chancel was rebuilt from the foundations, each stone being numbered and placed in its original position.
On the south aisle walls, only two old gargoyles remain, with a few dripstone labels and a sundial; the south aisle has an embattled stone parapet."
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