St Mary's Church, Chickney facts for kids
Quick facts for kids St Mary's Church, Chickney |
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St Mary's Church, Chickney, from the southeast
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| OS grid reference | TL 575 280 |
| Location | Chickney, Essex |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Website | Churches Conservation Trust |
| History | |
| Dedication | Saint Mary |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Redundant |
| Heritage designation | Grade I |
| Designated | 20 February 1967 |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Anglo-Saxon, Gothic |
| Groundbreaking | 10th–11th century |
| Completed | Early 15th century |
| Specifications | |
| Materials | Flint rubble with limestone and clunch dressings Tiled roofs, timber porch |
St Mary's Church is a very old Anglican church in a place called Chickney, Essex, England. It's not used for regular church services anymore, so it's called a redundant church. This building is super important! It's listed as a Grade I listed building, which is the highest protection. The Churches Conservation Trust looks after it to keep it safe for the future.
Contents
History of St Mary's Church
St Mary's Church is incredibly old. It was built a long, long time ago, even before the Normans came to England in 1066. It was built around the late 900s or early 1000s.
This church is even mentioned in the Domesday Book. This was a huge survey ordered by William the Conqueror in 1085 to record everything in England!
Over the years, the church changed. The chancel (the part of the church near the altar) was made longer when King Henry III was ruling. This was in the 1200s. The tall tower was added later, in the 1300s. The little porch at the south entrance was built in the early 1400s.
Church Design and Features
Outside the Church
The church is built from flint rubble, which means small, rough pieces of flint stone. It also uses limestone and clunch for details. The roofs are made of red tiles, and the porch is built from wood.
The church has a simple layout. It has a main area called the nave, a south porch, a chancel, and a tower at the west end. The nave and chancel show an Anglo-Saxon style, which is very old. The rest of the church has a Gothic style, which came later.
The tower has three levels. It has strong buttresses (supports) on the west side and a pointy, pyramid-shaped roof. There's a repaired window on the west side too. At the very top of the tower, there are two-light bell openings on each side.
The nave has a doorway from the 1300s. It also has windows that are even older than the Norman conquest! In the chancel, you can see lancet windows. These are tall, narrow windows from the early 1200s. There's also a squint from the 1400s, which is a small opening that lets you see the altar from another part of the church.
Inside the Church
Inside, the roof has a special design called a king post roof, which dates back to the early 1300s. The font, where baptisms happen, is also from the 1300s. It has a cover that was added in the 1500s.
You can also see a piscina from the early 1200s. This is a stone basin used for washing sacred vessels, and it has a pretty trefoil (three-leaf) shape at the top. The pulpit, where the priest gives sermons, is from the Georgian period, which was in the 1700s and early 1800s.
See also
