History in Structure

Parish Church of St Mary

A Grade II* Listed Building in Rochester, Medway

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.3981 / 51°23'53"N

Longitude: 0.4981 / 0°29'53"E

OS Eastings: 573874

OS Northings: 169521

OS Grid: TQ738695

Mapcode National: GBR PPN.6RK

Mapcode Global: VHJLT.L452

Plus Code: 9F329FXX+66

Entry Name: Parish Church of St Mary

Listing Date: 16 May 1991

Grade: II*

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1121550

English Heritage Legacy ID: 173221

ID on this website: 101121550

Location: New Testament Church of God, Strood, Medway, Kent, ME2

County: Medway

Electoral Ward/Division: Strood North

Parish: Non Civil Parish

Built-Up Area: Rochester

Traditional County: Kent

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Kent

Church of England Parish: Strood St Nicholas

Church of England Diocese: Rochester

Tagged with: Church building

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Strood

Description


STROOD VICARAGE ROAD
TQ 76 NW
2/286 Parish Church of
St Mary
16.5.91 II*

Parish Church. 1868-9 by Arthur Blomfield. Built and endowed
by Mary, widow of John Griffith, Dean of Rochester. Snecked
rubble ragstone; Kent tile roof. Yellow brick interior, with red
brick dressings. Nave (with W narthex and gallery), N and S
aisles, S porch S transept, chancel with N aisle. W front: an
original well detailed design. Shallow gabled porch with
limestone coping, vesica (containing small figure of Christ in
Majesty) to gable wall, 2-centre arched portal with detached
shafts. Buttresses to either side, that to the right (s) serving
also as a stair turret. Tripartite W window arrangement (2 light
window flanked by lancets); projecting statue niche above;
complicated buttressing marks the transition between the W wall
and polygonal apex belcote, with spirelet. The rest of the
exterior is more straightforward: 5-bay nave and 3-bay chancel
with clerestory (2-light clerestory windows under hood moulds),
paired lancets to aisles. 3 stepped lancets to E end. Interior:
nave piers of quatrefoil section with fine stiff-leaf capitals,
arches under continuous hood moulds with foliated corbels; poly-
chromatic brick work to spandrels and clerestory walls; roof,
boarded and canted with paired principals. Elaborate W end
arrangement: the 3 W windows deeply recessed under 3 stepped
super-ordinate arches the shafts enclosing a gallery (over the
narthex) which is pierced by 2:3:2 arches with marble shafts.
2 lancets flank central doorway below legend recording endowment
of the church by Mary Griffith, 1869. Chancel, raised by 3
steps, moulded arch of 3 orders on tall shafts and foliated
corbels. Side elevations treated differently: to the N, 2-bay
arcade of richly moulded arches on paired shaft with foliated
capitals; to the S, ie towards the organ chamber, a tall moulded
super-ordinate arch with 2 subordinate arches and large cusped
roundel. Chancel walls decorated in herringbone brick and
mastic. (Stepped E lancets contain Expressionist glass by
William G Blyth). Reredos: tripartite arrangement, the centre
with Supper at Emmaus (by T Bromfield), of excellent quality,with
side panels of mosaics by Salviati. Tiled floors. Full fittings
include sanctuary rails, open-fronted stalls, open benches to
nave; stone front and openwork wooden pulpit. Overall an
outstanding church described by Newman (Buildings of England,
1980 edition, p 551) as 'thoroughly convincing ... tautly
designed and with an excellent use of materials', and one of
Blomfield's best works.


Listing NGR: TQ7387669490

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