page_title: St Mary's Church, Potton
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: St Mary's Church, Potton / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the Sanctuary in the Church of St Mary the Virgin in w:Potton in w:Bedfordshire
context_page_description: The Parish Church of St Mary is the Anglican parish church for Potton in Bedfordshire. It has been a Grade I listed building since 1966 and comes under the Diocese of St Albans.
context_section_description: There has been a church on the site since the 11th-century but the present structure is 13th-century in origin, with 14th, 15th and early 16th-century additions and is built of cobblestones and ironstone with ashlar dressings with a mixture of plain and embattled parapets. It has a chancel, South chapel, nave, North transept, North and South aisles, North porch and West tower. The chancel dates to the 13th-century but was reworked in the 15th-century; the chancel has a 19th-century pointed-arched three-light East window and a 16 arch two-bay South arcade. The North elevation has a square-headed three-light window to the East and a four-centre headed two-light window the West, both dating to the 15th-century. Between these is a four-centred arched doorway with a small 13th-century lancet window above. Below the North East window is a piscina moved here from the North East vestry.
  The South chapel dates to the 16th-century and has two windows in the South and one East window, all of three-lights. Originally there was a vestry to the north side of the chancel dating to the 15th-century but this was demolished in the 16th-century. The four-centred South doorway is 19th-century. The nave has elements dating to the 13th-century but is mainly 14th-century in date and has five-bay 14th-century arcades to both sides; the South one is earlier in date with compound piers while the North arcade has octagonal columns. The clerestory has five 15th-century square-headed windows to each side, all of two lights except for the South East one which has three lights.
  The North transept is 13th-century in origin with the East elevation having a 15th-century three-light four-centre arched window, and a small window to the South East lighting inserted in the 15th-century rood screen stair. The North aisle is 14th-century reworked in the 15th-century while the North doorway is 14th-century. The South aisle is 14th-century reworked in the 15th-century. The West window and three South windows are all 15th-century. The North porch is 15th-century with a room above with two-light square-headed windows to the West and North and which is reached by stairs at the South East corner.
  The West tower is 15th-century with a semi-circular stair turret projecting from the North East angle. The West elevation has a 19th-century pointed-arched doorway to the ground stage and a three-light four-centred arched window to the second stage. On the tower's North side the remains of a stone lamp holder are still visible about 12 feet up. The belfry level has pointed-arched two-light windows to all sides. All the roofs were repaired in the 19th-century but retain much of the original moulded timbering with that to the South aisle being 14th-century, with those elsewhere being 15th and 16th-century. The pews are 19th-century while the circular baptismal font is of uncertain date. The East wall of the porch retains the indents of a memorial brass to a priest, with the central indent in the shape of a chalice.
  The church was restored in 1889 by Somers Clarke and J. T. Micklethwaite.
caption: The Sanctuary
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