---
title: "St Mary the Virgin, Layer Marney"
description: "Located in Layer Marney, Essex. Built Largely rebuilt early C16 in red brick. Diocese of Chelmsford. Grade I. Tudor brick Perpendicular style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Essex","Layer Marney","Grade I","Tudor Brick","Perpendicular"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-mary-virgin-layer-marney"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:00:53.463Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-07T20:34:22.800Z"
location: "Layer Marney, Essex"
country: "England"
county: "Essex"
town: "Layer Marney"
address: "Layer Marney, Essex, CO5 9UR"
postcode: "CO5 9UR"
built: "Largely rebuilt early C16 in red brick"
denomination: "Church of England"
dedications: ["Mary"]
diocese: "Chelmsford"
grade: "I"
style: "Tudor brick Perpendicular"
materials: "Red brick with flared-header diapering and limestone and brick dressings"
website: "http://www.layerchurches.org.uk/churches.htm"
openingHours: "Church open daily."
parish: "Layer Marney"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1223987"
gridReference: "TL 928 174"
accessNotes: "Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas"
---

# St Mary the Virgin, Layer Marney

St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I parish church beside Layer Marney Tower, Essex, in the Diocese of Chelmsford: an early sixteenth-century red-brick rebuild, open daily, with Marney tombs and a wall painting of St Christopher.

## Overview

Historic England lists the church (1223987, Grade I, 7 April 1965). The listing describes a church largely rebuilt in the early sixteenth century in red brick. The west tower has diapering in flared headers, diagonal stone-dressed buttresses, embattled parapets and a polygonal staircase tower. The south aisle, south porch and south chancel porch are embattled; windows have four-centred brick heads. The east window is stone, of five trefoiled ogee transomed lights. The east gable has a crow-stepped parapet. A priest’s chamber at the west end of the north aisle retains a fireplace and octagonal chimney stack.

Interior fittings highlighted in the list include a fifteenth-century rood screen with ogee arches; a fourteenth-century alabaster tomb with an armoured effigy; the 1523 tomb of Henry, Lord Marney, with recumbent effigy; and a large early sixteenth-century painted St Christopher on the north nave wall. Colchester Heritage Explorer notes plastered brick walls with limestone dressings and that a small college or chantry for a warden and two priests was founded here. The church stands immediately beside the contemporary Layer Marney Tower.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1223987](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1223987)
- [Layer Churches](http://www.layerchurches.org.uk/churches.htm)