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St. Mary the Virgin, Bishops Cannings, Wiltshire

Description

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin, built during the 12th to the 15th centuries, is a large and beautiful cruciform structure in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, transepts, lady chapel, south porch and a central tower with turret, and a spire of the 15th century, 130 feet in height and containing 8 bells: the nave arcade is Transition Norman: the south porch has a groined stone roof, and seems to have been added in the Decorated period: within the porch are traces or a holy water stoup, and over the inner doorway is a bracket which formerly supported a small statue: the nave roof and clerestory are Penpendicular, and were probably added in the earlier half of the 15th century : the chancel is large, and has a grained stone ceiling: it contains a piscina of Early English date, and the remains sedilia: in the south wall of the south transept is another piscina with stone shell, probably indicating an altar here: at the northeast angle of the chancel is tbe ancient sacristy, having a grained stone roof and two small lancet windows deeply splayed internally: in the outer wall of the north aisle, on the west side of the small doorway, is another stoup: the chapel to the east of the south transept was dedicated to "Our Lady of the Bower"; in 1563 the churchwardens conveyed it by deed to John Ernle of Bourton, "to construct seats therin for the purpose of hearing devine service in the church, and also as a place of burial for himself and family"; against the north wall is a freestone monument to John Ernle, ob. 1571, with the arms of Ernle quartering Malwyn; and another monument to Edward Ernle, ob. 1656, of Etchilhampton, with a shield of arsm of Ernle quartered with Hungerford; immediately above, on the sill of the east window, is an old "undertaker's helmet" surmounted with the Ernle crest: the organ, erected in 1809, at a cost of 400 guineas, has since been enlarged, and the yearly interest of £600 was bequeathed by Mr William Bayley, a native of this village, who circumnavigated the globe with Captain Cook, and died in 1809, to keep the instrument in order and pay an organist: a curious oak chair with painted panels is preserved in the church: the stained east window was erected in 1860 by the clergy and churchwardens of the archdenconry of Wilts and other fiends to the Ven. William Macdonald M.A. 46 years vicar, who died in 1862: there is a brass to William Ewart and Joseph Christopher Ewart, both representatives in Parliament for Liverpool, and many mural tablets and floor stones: the church was restored in 1883-4, at t a cost of about £3,600, under the direction Mr. Charles E. Ponting, architect, of Marlborough, when the floors were relaid, the interior refitted and reseated with oak benches, carved by Mr. Harry Hems, of Exeter: there are sittings for 500 persons

St. Mary the Virgin
Bishops Cannings
Wiltshire

Denomination:Church of England
Built:15th c.
Sittings:500
Graveyard:Yes