Church Heritage Record 619091

West tower. Clerestoried nave with lean-to north and south aisles. Chancel.

[Approximate] Nave 10m (33ft) x 4½ m (15ft), aisled 3m (10ft) wide, chancel 7m (23ft)

The church leaflet explains that ‘Wyford’ suggests a temple and a ford, with ‘by’ added by the Vikings in the 8th-9th centuries. The settlement was recorded in the Domesday survey when there is likely to have been a Saxon church on the site.

A Manor House was built to the south-west after the Norman conquest, the residence of the Chevercourt family until c.1400. The remains of the former moated site are in the adjacent field. The site includes a moat, which survives well, and fishpond. The central mound is thought to retain significant evidence of the buildings which once occupied it. The site is protected by Scheduled Ancient Monument designation.

The present chancel and tower are likely to have been added to the original church and the south aisle built on by the Normans, hence the circular columns c.1200. The north aisle would have been a later addition. Over the course of development the chancel has been extended, the roof raised, the rood loft blocked. Windows were renewed in the 14th century, and some in the 19th century.

A restoration took place in 1869 when the pews were introduced and roof re-done. Then in 1959 the church closed, opening again after works in 1965. These involved the introduction of electricity and heaters into the building, bringing grave stones inside and laying them flat in the floor and the installation of the organ.

The archaeological potential of the site is considerable. There are no known designations relating to the ecology of the plot, though it contains mature trees. (In 2013) The church has bats.

St Mary’s is an attractive Leicestershire church, whose stone glows in the summer sun. It is picturesquely located in the countryside and is the quintessential rural church.

There is a three-stage west tower with crenellated parapet, corner pinnacles and gargoyles (that in the south-west corner appears newly carved), a single lancet in the ground level on the west elevation, and two-light openings on each face at the top. To the east of the tower is the three-bay nave. Prominent stone copings with gabled kneelers punctuate either end of the nave and aisles. Stone cross finials surmount the gables. A continuous French drain runs around the base of the building. Continuous wooden eaves above.

Three sets of two-light ogee-headed clerestory windows within square-headed surrounds can be seen above the lean-to lead covered aisle roofs. The south aisle has two sets of two-light pointed windows with a pointed doorway between them (and above it the only section of guttering) and a three-light window at the east end. The north aisle has two-light windows beneath square-headed surrounds, another pointed doorway between them and a three-light pointed east window. Every window has a hoodmould with figurative stops. Much attractive, Decorated tracery.

The chancel has a lower, steeper roofline. New stones are evident around the windows on the south side. Two sets of two-light pointed windows in the north and south walls.

Although there are doors in the north and south aisles, that to the south is regularly used. Two steps descend into the nave (only a single step descent through the north door). The small narrow interior has a three-bay north and south arcade. Pillars to the south are circular whilst those to the north are octagonal, both in smooth stone. The coursed stone walls are all exposed but would perhaps once have been plastered.

At the west end of the nave, entry to the tower base is up one step. The small space is screened by a curtain and used for storage. A single light window in the west wall is set within a deep reveal. The first bay of the north aisle has since the 1960s been entirely taken up by the organ. The aisle floors are paved with stone slabs, interspersed with 18th and 19th century grave slabs laid into the floor at the west and to the east ends of both aisles, probably in the 1960s. Laid in the north-east corner is a floriate cross-slab. There is a small aumbry in the south wall of the north aisle. The south aisle has the font in the south-west corner. In the sill of the south-east window is a Nine Men’s Morris game inscribed in the stonework. A piscina is positioned within the south wall.

Above the nave is a 19th century principal rafter roof which rests on foliate corbels at the clerestory sill level. The floor is paved in red and black square tiles. A red carpet is laid along the aisles. Seating is provided by fixed pine pews, introduced in 1869, situated on raised boarded pew platforms. Underpew electric heaters are no longer in use. There is an accumulation of several garden benches in the church. Oil lamps, converted to electric in the 1960s, are suspended from the nave roof.

The pointed chancel arch has conical imposts. Beneath it a step rises into the space, whose roof is lower than the nave and composed of archbraced trusses with decorative open fretwork in the spandrels. The shapes appear to form the symbols of the Star of David as well as a wheel. A single row of choir stalls and frontals to either side. A suspended brass ring chandelier hangs from the roof above, with additional light from spotlights (also in the nave). The floor is of stone with decorative encaustic tiles to the raised sanctuary and altar steps. There is an aumbry in the north wall and piscina within the south wall.