St Mary, Wainfleet St Mary

St Mary’s is a Grade II* parish church on Church Lane, Wainfleet St Mary, Lincolnshire, in the Diocese of Lincoln, a late twelfth-century church with Early English arcades, standing apart from the later port settlement of Wainfleet All Saints.

Overview

Historic England lists the church (1224403, Grade II*, 3 February 1967). The listing describes a parish church of the late twelfth, early thirteenth and early fifteenth centuries and the eighteenth century, restored 1875–92, in limestone coursed rubble and ashlar dressings with some red brick and render and lead roofs. The plan is a west tower, nave with north and south aisles, and a chancel with north organ chamber. The three-stage late twelfth-century tower has a pointed west doorway of about 1200. Interior features include a pointed, double-chamfered late twelfth-century tower arch with scalloped and moulded corbelled capitals, and early thirteenth-century north and south arcades — the south of four bays with round piers and bands of chip-carving on the capitals.

Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer confirms a Norman tower-arch respond and Early English arcades, with a full restoration of 1875–92. The parish council states that the restorer was Sydney Smirke, and that the site once stood on an ancient salt-panning route before population drifted to the Haven port. A priests’ list from 1217 is recorded locally. Opening is by arrangement.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1224403
• Wainfleet Saint Mary Parish Council: the church