St Mary the Virgin, Fawsley
St Mary the Virgin, Fawsley
St Mary’s is a Grade I parish church on Knightley Way, Fawsley, Northamptonshire, in the Diocese of Peterborough. It stands isolated in parkland after the Knightley family enclosed the medieval village.
- Location
- Fawsley, Northamptonshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Northamptonshire
- City / town
- Fawsley
- Address
- Knightley Way, Fawsley, Northamptonshire, NN11 3BS
- Postcode
- NN11 3BS
- Built
- 13th–16th centuries; chancel rebuilt 1690
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Mary
- Diocese
- Peterborough
- Parish
- Fawsley
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Medieval Gothic; chancel of 1690
- Materials
- Coursed squared ironstone and coursed ironstone rubble with some limestone dressings; lead roofs
- Grid reference
- SP 565 567
- Opening hours
- Open 9.30am to 5pm daily (but may be closed in bad weather to prevent mud being carried in from field).
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic England records a church of the thirteenth, fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with the chancel rebuilt in 1690 (datestone DK/1690 over a blocked priest’s door). Fabric is coursed squared ironstone and ironstone rubble with some limestone dressings and lead roofs. The plan is chancel, nave, north and south aisles, south porch and a three-stage west tower with a Decorated west window and a canopied niche. The nave has a late medieval tie-beam roof and three-bay arcades with round columns. Late-eighteenth-century box pews incorporate sixteenth-century linenfold and tracery panels.
The listing highlights an outstanding series of brasses, wall monuments and a tomb chest with effigies to the Knightley family. Side windows retain sixteenth- and seventeenth-century painted glass. Wikipedia notes a tradition of a 1209 foundation on an earlier site, and that the church escaped demolition at enclosure because it held chantry land. Copper was stolen from the roofs in 2015.