Church

St Mary the Virgin, Westwood

St Mary the Virgin, Westwood

St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I parish church on Farleigh Lane, Lower Westwood, Wiltshire, in the Diocese of Salisbury, standing beside Westwood Manor.

Location
Westwood, Wiltshire
Country
England
County
Wiltshire
City / town
Westwood
Address
Farleigh Lane, Westwood, Wiltshire, BA15 2AF
Postcode
BA15 2AF
Built
15th century; restored 1840
Denomination
Church of England
Dedication
Mary
Diocese
Salisbury
Parish
Westwood
Grade
I
Style
Perpendicular
Materials
Limestone ashlar and dressed limestone; stone slate roof with coped verges
Opening hours
Normally open in conjunction with National Trust manor.
Access
Level access to the main areas

Overview

Historic England records an Anglican parish church of the fifteenth century, restored in 1840, in limestone ashlar and dressed limestone under a stone slate roof. The plan is a west tower, nave with north chapel and chancel. The three-stage Perpendicular west tower has diagonal buttresses, a Tudor-arched west doorway, battlemented traceried parapet, crocketed pinnacles and an octagonal south-east stair turret with a crocketed domed roof. Pevsner called the elaborately decorated tower splendid. The fifteenth-century north chapel has Perpendicular windows and a battlemented parapet.

The 1840 restoration rebuilt the south side of the chancel while retaining a trefoil-headed door. A reused stone over a north chancel door may be late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century; a chapelry of Bradford-on-Avon at Westwood is recorded in 1299. The nave has a late eighteenth-century coved plaster ceiling. Fifteenth-century stained glass survives in the chancel, including an east window showing Christ crucified on a lily. The church is normally opened in conjunction with the National Trust manor.

Further Information