Bunny St Mary

Official Listing Description

SK 52 NE

7/44

13.10.66

BUNNY

MAIN STREET
(North side)

Church of St Mary
and adjoining wall

Grade I

Parish church and adjoining wall. C14, C15, C18, restored 1718 for Sir Thomas Parkyns, C19, restored 1890-1 and 1911. Dressed coursed rubble and ashlar. Lead and stainless steel roofs. Coped gables with single ridge cross to the east chancel. Tower with spire, nave, aisles, south porch, north vestry and chancel. Angle buttressed single stage C14 ashlar tower on a moulded plinth and embattled with plain band under and single corner crocketed pinnacles. Crocketed spire. West side with doorway with plank door. Over is a single large arched C14 3 light window with reticulated tracery. There are 5 small rectangular lights. Projecting from the north side is a low C19 ashlar coped brick wall topped with iron railing. This forms a rectangle with the north aisle enclosing a paved area with single C19 headstone. The south side has 5 rectangular lights and the east side a single rectangular light. 4 moulded arched bell chamber openings with single clock faces under. Dressed coursed rubble buttressed north aisle with continuous sill band to the north side forming a hood mould over the doorway. The west wall has a single arched 3 light window. The north wall has a single restored C14 arched 3 light window with intersecting tracery and hood mould. To the left is a moulded arched doorway with Cl7 door, further left is a single squint and on the far left 2 similar restored C14 windows with hood moulds. The east wall has a single C19 2 light window with cusped tracery under a flat arch. Embattled dressed coursed rubble C15 clerestory with band of blind quatrefoil under and 4 windows, 3 with 2 ogee arched lights, the single window to the left with 2 trefoil arched lights. All with tracery and under a flat arch. There are 2 gargoyles and the remains of 3 crocketed pinnacles. Ashlar chancel set on a chamfered plinth with continuous sill band which extends around the vestry where it is broken by some openings. Buttressed north wall, each buttress terminating above the parapet in a crocketed pinnacle. The parapet is decorated with open quatrefoils. The single buttress second from the left rises from a carved grotesque head. There are 2 restored C14 arched 3 light windows with intersecting tracery, hood moulds and 2 remaining label stops. To the left is the buttressed vestry, formerly chapel, the outer buttresses with remains of crocketed finials. Set on a chamfered plinth. Parapet. The west wall has a single lead glazing bar casement. The north wall has a doorway with plank door, the east wall has a single lead glazing bar fixed light with moulded jambs. Above, in the chancel wall, are 2 C14 windows each with 3 trefoil arched lights under a flat arch and with moulded surrounds. Similarly buttressed east chancel with single early C18 5 light ashlar cross fixed light with cavetto moulded surround. The similarly buttressed south chancel with embattled parapet has a single arched 3 light C19 window with cusped tracery, hood mould and human head label stops. To the left are 2 restored C14 arched 3 light windows with intersecting tracery, hood moulds and human head label stops. Further left is a single similarly arched, now blocked, window opening with hood mould and single right human head label stop, also with later, now blocked, arched doorway. Dressed coursed rubble south aisle with parapet and band of blind quatrefoil under. Remains of 4 crocketed pinnacles. 2 C14 arched 3 light intersecting traceried windows with hood moulds and label stops. Continuous sill band broken by the porch. C15 ashlar porch on moulded plinth with parapet as aisle and remains of 4 crocketed pinnacles. Round arched gable topped with single finial and containing a single trefoil arched niche. Moulded entrance arch with iron double gate. The side walls each have single arched 3 light openings with cusped panel tracery. Barrel vaulted roof with 5 transverse ashlar ribs. Ashlar benches. Inner moulded arched doorway with C17 door. To the left is a single similar restored C14 window with hood mould and single left human head label stop. The ashlar west wall is on a chamfered plinth and has a single cambered arched C18 3 light window. C15 dressed coursd rubble clerestory has 4 windows each with 2 ogee arched lights under a flat arch and the remains of 2 crocketed pinnacles. Parapet with remains of quatrefoil blind panelling under. Interior. C14 5 bay nave arcades with double chamfered arches and circular columns and responds apart from the north west and south west columns and the north responds which are octagonal. All with moulded capitals apart from the south east which is crudely carved. Tall double chamfered tower arch. The inner order supported on corbels. Moulded chancel arch with screen, part constructed of C14 screen. South chancel with C14 sedilia with engaged quatrefoil colonnettes with fillets and moulded capitals. Ogee arched with hood moulds and finials. Linking the base of the finials is a band which extends under the window to the left. To the left of the sedilia is the arched piscina having 2 inner trefoil arched openings and cusped tracery. The north wall has an aumbry with some remaining moulding, to the left is an ogee arched doorway to the vestry, where in the south wall is an arched piscina with inner trefoil arch and aumbry to the right. Flanking the south and north windows of the chancel are single quatrefoil colonnettes with fillets and moulded capitals. West of the south aisle doorway is an arched tomb recess with arched piscina in the south wall of the south aisle. Circular C12 ashlar font. Octagonal C19 ashlar font. The chancel roof lowered in the early C18, is part supported on ashlar corbels. Restored nave roof supported on ashlar corbels and inscribed "J P, W T, 1718 J W". Few fragments of wall painting to the north east respond. Over the south aisle doorway is a Royal Arms of George III. There are 3 hatchments over the chancel arch. In the east chancel is a wall tablet to George Augustus Henry Anne Parkyns, 1830, with a shield on the apron, draped urn on the crown. That to Thomas Boothby Parkyns, 1800, has foliate scrolls flanking the tablet and is surmounted by a swan neck pediment with urn. The apron is decorated with a shield. The wall tablet in the south chancel to George Alexander Forteath, 1862, is surmounted by a shield. That to Sir Thomas Parkyns, d.1806, by John Bacon, has a shield over the inscription. This is surmounted by a kneeling female figure and sarcophagus. On the north wall is a tablet to Dame Anne Parkyns, 1725, by Edward Poynton, the apron being decorated with putti and skulls and the segmental arched head surmounted by a kneeling figure. There is a further monument to Richard Parkyns, 1603. This has kneeling male and female figures in contemporary dress and facing each other with 4 small figures behind. The apron and entablature decorated with strap work and the entablature supported on decorative columns. In the south aisle is a wall tablet to Isabella Beetham, 1814, and Isabella Ann Beetham, 1801. The wall tablet to Henry Cropper, 1812 by Gaffin of Regent Street, is in the form of a sarcophagus surmounted by an urn. That to Henry Cropper, 1726, has a roundel decorated with a figure on the apron, and is surmounted by a broken pediment supported on fluted pilasters. The wall tablet to Elizabeth Cropper, 1800, by J. Peck, is surmounted by an urn, as is that to Henry Cropper, 1794. A further wall tablet with obliterated inscription is to Humphrey Barley, 1571. This is decorated with a shield of arms, Doric columns and a pediment. In the north aisle, removed from the chancel, is the large and fine monument to Sir Thomas Parkyns, 1741. Designed by himself. The monument is 2 bays wide, in the left bay is the lifesize figure of Parkyns in wrestling pose. In the right bay is a small figure of a man lying on a mat with Father Time standing next, both crudely carved. Inscriptions in Latin and Greek both in the right bay and below. The lower inscription tablet flanked by single decorative brackets. Above and flanking the figures are single Corinthian pilasters with shields of arms over.