St Mary Magdalene - Westoning, Bedfordshire
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member SMacB
N 51° 59.039 W 000° 30.253
30U E 671385 N 5762198
St Mary Magdalene, a medieval church in Westoning.
Waymark Code: WM11X2D
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/02/2020
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member pmaupin
Views: 1

"The church of ST. MARY MAGDALEN consists of a chancel 30 ft. 10 in. by 17 ft. 3 in., with a modern northwest vestry, a nave 45 ft. 6 in. by 17 ft. 3 in., north and south aisles about 7 ft. wide, a south porch, and a west tower 9 ft. 3 in. by 11 ft.

A few late 12th-century carved stones are built into the inside of the south aisle wall, and a good deal of ruined material of this date is to be seen elsewhere, but the church seems to have been entirely rebuilt at the beginning of the 14th century on the existing plan, with the exception of the tower, which was added a century later; the 14th-century church had a steep-pitched nave roof extending over the aisles, but in the 15th century the walls of the aisles were heightened and the present low-pitched roof put on.

The eastern part of the chancel has been refaced and the steep-pitched roof is modern; the east window was inserted in the middle of the last century and consists of three uncusped lights with geometrical tracery. On the north side are two restored 14th-century windows of two uncusped lights with tracery consisting of a septfoiled spherical triangle in a pointed head; between them a doorway leads into a modern vestry. On the south side are two similar windows, a restored 14th-century pointed doorway in two orders moulded with a sunk quarter round and a modern label, and a moulded pointed 14th-century piscina with trefoiled cusping. The bowl of a pillar piscina is built into the chancel wall at the north-west. The chancel arch is in two chamfered orders with scrolled stops, half-octagonal responds, and moulded capitals and bases.

The nave has a 15th-century roof in three bays with moulded timbers having carved bosses, and it extends over the aisles; the line of the earlier roof can be seen in the outside walling over the chancel arch. The arcades are in three bays of the same character as the chancel arch. The tower arch is in two double-ogee moulded orders separated by a large casement, and has a moulded label; the jambs have engaged round shafts with moulded capitals and bases of good early 15th-century detail.

Both aisles have 14th-century east windows of three uncusped lights with a cusped sixfoil in a circle in the head; in the north aisle are two original north windows of three pointed lights, the middle one alone being trefoiled, and a 14th-century pointed doorway moulded like that in the chancel. The walling changes above the windows to larger-sized rubble, and shows clearly where the 15th-century heightening took place, the embattled parapet and the west window, which is of three cinquefoiled lights under a depressed arch, having been built at the same time. The door and windows in the north and east walls have moulded labels with either head stops or returned ends.

The south windows in the south aisle have 15thcentury tracery and rear arches, but the external detail suggests that the jambs and heads are original 14th-century work. The doorway is 14th-century work of three orders and a label, each moulded with a sunk quarter round, and there is an inside label with a head stop on one side. The east and west windows are like those in the north aisle, and there is a 14th-century trefoiled pointed piscina with moulded jambs and a moulded label. The porch is restored late 14th-century work with an embattled parapet and diagonal buttresses; the doorway has a wave mould and a double ogee mould separated by a casement. There is a parvise over, lighted by a squareheaded cinquefoiled light in the south wall, under which is a small niche; the entrance to the parvise is up a staircase on the north side, but its doorway into the nave has been walled up.

The tower has diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet with a short leaded spire. There is a west doorway with a sundial on one of the stones, and a west window of three cinquefoiled lights over it; its rear arch and label once formed part of the west window of the 14th-century nave. The belfry windows are modern, and there is a modern stair at the north-east.

The base of the font appears to be a 13th-century capital placed directly on the pavement, and may have belonged to the nave arcade of an earlier church; the bowl is round.

The lower part of a 15th-century rood screen with three solid panels on each side separates chancel and nave.

There are five bells: the treble by Anthony Chandler; the second and tenor by Russell of Wootton, 1743; the third by T. Mears, 1829; and the fourth by Taylor, 1903.

The plate consists of a cup of 1655, given with a pewter flagon in 1685, a paten of 1777, given in 1812, and a paten of 1876.

The register books are: (1) all entries 1560 to 1611; (2) 1653 to 1725; (3) 1724 to 1793, marriages to 1754; (4) marriages 1754 to 1802; (5) baptisms and burials 1793 to 1812; and (6) marriages 1802 to 1812."

SOURCE - (visit link)
Building Materials: Stone

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