page_title: Church of St Mary the Virgin, Gamlingay
section_title: Fittings
hierarchical_section_title: Church of St Mary the Virgin, Gamlingay / Fittings
caption_attribution_description: English: The 13th-century baptismal font in the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire
context_page_description: The Church of St Mary the Virgin is the parish church for the village of Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire and is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. Gamlingay is part of the ecclesiastical parish of Gamlingay with Hatley St George and East Hatley. The church is mainly 13th-century with extensive rebuilding in the 14th and 15th centuries. It has been a Grade I listed building since 1967 and comes under the St Neots Deanery in the Diocese of Ely. Nikolaus Pevsner in 1954 described the church as "... the most impressive church in this part of the county."
context_section_description: The rood screen is mainly late mediaeval and is in five bays with the extra-wide middle bay being the entry. It has been much altered. The oldest parts are thought to have been in position after the restoration in the 1480s. Traces of the mediaeval paint colours of red, green, cream and gold still remain. At that time there would have been a small winding staircase (a vice) leading up to the top of the screen from behind the present pulpit. The doorway to the screen is still visible but the vice was bricked up in the Reformation. However the remains of the first few steps of the vice can be seen besides the modern pulpit. The cornice infilling above the heads of the lights and gates are modern. In the North chapel can be found three remodelled pews with an additional pew end incorporated into modern seating. In the South chapel can be found two blocks of seating, each of four pews, similar to the seating in the North chapel but with original panelled fronts to the first pews. Nearby at the East end of the South aisle, is a third panelled front incorporated into modern seating. With the exception of the first these seats are late mediaeval.
  The sedilia in the chancel is believed to Bec 19th-century apart from the 15th-century moulded jambs. The stalls or pews inside the East side of the rood screen – three on either side of the opening – have shaped and moulded divisions and curved and moulded cappings. It is believed that these seats were brought to the church from another site. It is known that they were re-positioned during the 1880 restoration from the south wall of the chancel. They may well have been for the six priests known to be in the village in 1490. The carvings on them seats on the North side are: modern; a mitred ecclesiastic; a collared animal; a bird with long wings and turned back head. On the South side: an angel; a winged beast; an animal (mutilated); a defaced head. The two seats either side of the entry have misericords carved, with on the North side a crouching man and a demon's head, while on the South side an ape and grapes in vine leaves. With the exception of the first these carvings possibly date to about 1442.
  The church has six bells with the 2nd, 3rd and 6th by Miles Graye dated 1653 while the rest are either modern or recast. The bell frame has four pits probably dating to about 1490 when Bishop John Alcock blessed two new bells in the church. The church has a number of brass indents with one in the chancel being of a cleric, with an inscription plate and roundels at the corners. In the nave under the third arch of the North arcade is another of a man and his wife, with an inscription plate. Under the second arch of the South arcade is another of a man and his wife, with an inscription plate and roundels at the corners. Under the third arch of the South arcade is yet another of a man with his wife with inscription plate below and prayer picture above. In the South aisle at the West end is another very worn example of two figures with scrolls with an inscription plate below and prayer picture. A sixth example also very worn is of a man and his wife. All are of the 15th or 16th-century set in slabs of limestone marble.
  In the South West corner of the nave can be found part of a 13th-century limestone marble slab with undeciphered inscription in Lombardic capitals along one margin. The communion rails were fitted at the bequest of William Meadston (died 1683). The door in the ground stage of the tower is formed of two leaves and is late-mediaeval and originally was fitted in the West doorway. Prior to the restoration of 1880 there were two baptismal fonts in the church: one in the present position and one in the centre aisle. The present 13th-century font has an octagonal limestone marble bowl with two pointed arched panels in each face. The font's base has a cylindrical central pier with 19th-century peripheral shafts. The font's sub-base possibly incorporates the bowl of the earlier font which may well have been in use in the earliest church on this site. The restored octagonal ogee font cove
caption: The 13th-century baptismal font
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