St Mary, Wilsford

St Mary's is a Grade I parish church on Main Street, Wilsford, Lincolnshire, in the Diocese of Lincoln and the Ancaster Wilsford Group. A church here is recorded in Domesday Book.

Overview

Historic England lists fabric of the eleventh to fifteenth centuries, restored in 1860–61 by Kirk and Parry. The church is of coursed limestone rubble and ashlar under slate and leaded roofs, with a west tower and spire, clerestoried nave, north and south aisles and a south porch. Long-and-short quoins at the south-east angle of the nave mark Anglo-Saxon work. The three-stage fifteenth-century west tower has an embattled parapet, gargoyles and a set-back spire with two tiers of lucarnes. The thirteenth-century chancel has a four-light fourteenth-century east window of flowing tracery. Inside, a late twelfth-century two-bay north arcade has a slender round pillar; the south arcade is thirteenth-century. Fittings are largely nineteenth-century except a fifteenth-century octagonal font and part of a fourteenth-century oak screen reset at the rear of the nave.

Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer notes Anglo-Saxon stonework reused in the north aisle, including a grave cover and marker, and Domesday mention of a church. The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture records that the manor was purchased by Bishop Remigius for Lincoln Cathedral. The church is open most days.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1360639
• Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer: Church of St Mary
• CRSBI: St Mary, Wilsford