St. Mary the Virgin Church, Devizes

The church was built in the early Norman occupation of Devizes in the mid 12th century. It was built outside the Castle walls for the townspeople. The church is  built of ashlar and has a chancel, aisled and clerestoried nave, south porch, and west tower.There is a tradition that it is not the first church on the site, for a churchwarden told Dr. Burges (rector 1874–99) that foundations had been discovered leading north-east across the chancel through the churchyard. There is, however, no further evidence of such a building. 

 The present chancel, like that of St. John's, is of the later 12th century and is of two bays with quadripartite vaulting and intersecting arcading decorating the internal walls. There is no certain evidence for the plan of the western part of the original church. The position of the 13th-century south wall of the south porch suggests that by that time the nave had achieved its present length and had at least a south aisle, although probably not as wide as that which exists. The porch doorway has an inner order of the 13th century with four orders of reset 12th-century ornament in the arch, perhaps taken from the earlier south doorway. The footings of the east wall of the north aisle are thicker than those of the other aisle walls and may be 13th century or earlier.

No datable features of the later 13th and 14th centuries remain but both aisles were probably extended to their present dimensions during that period and much of the surviving walling, which incorporates many ashlar blocks of 12th-century character, may be of 14th-century construction. The appearance of the church, however, was radically altered in the 15th century. The first changes may have been in the south aisle where the walls were heightened and embattled and there was a new west window. Simultaneously the south porch was heightened to a full two storeys and provided with a stair-turret on the west. Perhaps even before that work was finished the nave arcades of five bays were rebuilt and a clerestorey, elaborately decorated on the outside, was added. The date of this work is recorded in a memorial inscription on the roof to the donor William Smith (d. 1436), a Devizes man of whom little is known. The next phase of the alterations was the refurbishing of the aisles with new windows, buttresses and roofs, the insertion of new windows into the chancel, and the enlargement of the chancel arch. Finally, but still before the end of the century, the west tower was built against the nave. The nave wall was then removed to reveal a tower arch of unusual height.

Changes made during the Reformation are described above;) the greatest structural loss was probably the removal, in 1561, of the rood-screen which had presumably been put up c. 1436. The porch was repaired in 1612 and again in 1638–9. The lower part of the west window was bricked up in 1637–8) perhaps because it coincided with a gallery floor. Two doorways were cut in the tower, presumably those at gallery level and on the outside at the base of the stair in 1697–8, and a new gallery was put in in 1706. The spirited statue of the Virgin and Child in the earlier 15th-century niche on the east gable of the nave was probably put in during the 17th century.

Below the interior of St. Mary's Church in about 1900 - courtesy Andrew Jenkins. 

In 1852 the present Romanesque east window was inserted together with the arcading below it, modelled upon similar arcading in the chancel. The church was repewed, a vestry built, and the restored church reopened in 1855.) Perhaps at this time the blocked windows of which there were at least five in the aisles and nine in the clerestorey, together with the east window, were reopened. Extensive wall-paintings, then revealed, were almost invisible in 1878. The church was again restored in 1876, when colouring was discovered on the canopied niches on each side of the chancel arch. A lath-and-plaster roof to the nave was then removed and the tie-beams and wall-plates consequently exposed. A little colour was then applied to them. The rood-loft door was opened up and the gallery blocking the west window removed.) In 1875 the chancel was paved with tiles at the cost of Thomas Badger. These works were crowned in 1897–8 by repairs to the tower which had begun to crack. The tower was then underpinned and some of its battlements, pinnacles, and gargoyles were taken away, and the chancel reroofed. Further repairs, particularly to the nave and tower roof, took place in 1923–4.

Two 16th-century brasses to members of the Horton family existed in 1855 but have since disappeared, as have all but one of the matrices then surviving. There are also monuments to John Garth (d. 1764), M.P. and recorder, and to members of the Filkes and Hull families. A mural tablet commemorating Henry Johnson (d. 1681), rector, is no longer visible, although noted in 1878.) Nor are the wall monuments to George Johnson (d. 1683) and Timothy Sacheverell (d. 1680), which were visible temp. Charles II. There is a brass tablet to John Llewellin (d. 1913).

The church possessed a clock as early as 1498–9 and organs by 1500–1. The fate of the organs during the Reformation is traced above. The royal arms, dating from 1797, were re-erected above the chancel arch in 1963. A weather 'cock', perhaps of late-17th-century date, stands inside the tower.

Below St. Mary's Church from New Park Street with Brownston House. 

In 1436 the church owned 3 dishes, 2 flagons, and a gilt ring. A 16th-century letter to the bishop enumerates the goods that some of the then recent churchwardens had alienated over the preceding decade. They were a large cross with St. Mary and St. John, a pair of candlesticks, 5 chalices, 2 censers, a large pyx, 2 cruets, an oil vat, a 'shep' with spoon, and 2 paxes. The letter has been assigned to Mary's reign and could be of 1554. If so, the pre-reformation church must have been rich in plate, for even after these depradations the commissioners of 1553 found 13½ oz. They took only 3 oz. for the king. A silver plate for the communion table was bought in 1599–1600. In 1607 and 1634–this plate survived together with a silver communion cup. This seems to have been lost soon after, for a new one was bought in 1654. In 1677–8 there was a silver cup and plate and a pewter flagon. The cup survived until 1783 by which time there was also a salver and flagon inscribed 1716–18. The church now possesses 2 chalices, 2 patens, and a flagon, all hall-marked 1789. There is also a brass alms-dish of c. 1848.

At least 4 bells hung in the tower in 1498–1500. The clapper of one of these, the 'great' bell, was repaired by John Smith of Bristol in the latter year. The letter to the bishop above referred to mentions the loss of 2 great bells, but in 1553 there were 4 bells and a sanctus bell. Some of the then existing bells were recast by J. Wallis of Salisbury in 1606, and a bell was recast in 1616. In 1641 there were 5 bells. There are now six: (i), (ii), (v), and (vi) of 1663, all apparently by the Purdues, (iv) of 1640, recast 1696 by Robert and William Cor of Aldbourne, (iii) of 1701, recast 1879. The bells were re-hung in 1878, 1897–8, and 1915. The registers date from 1569 and are complete. A chest with 15 locks, holding title deeds, stood in the chancel in 1629.

A church-house was 'taken down' in 1529, but such a building still existed in 1701. The graveyard was enlarged c. 1768. In it, south of the chancel, stands a dole-table, perhaps of 15th century date.

The Church is no longer used for regular worhip and in June 2010 public consultation is ongoing to consider community use whilst conserving the heritage values of this important church.