Medieval Carvings at St Mary's

Introduction

The tower and spire of St Mary’s, Bottesford, are a landmark visible from a large part of the Vale of Belvoir. The height to the tip of the spire is about 210 feet, making it one of the tallest parish churches in the country. The slender spire sits upon a square-sectioned tower whose faces look S, W, N and East.

Carvings are found around the string course of stonework that is the base of the castellated parapet around the top of the tower. On each of the four side of the tower this string course carries two prominent gargoyles and also, spaced at intermediate intervals, a series of small stone faces and stylised flowers. Small carved heads also occur at the ends of the mouldings around the tops of the windows immediately below the parapet, one window (hence two such faces) in each side of the tower. There are no other carvings on the tower.

Architectural details indicate that the tower and spire were erected later than the nave, aisles and chancel, but before construction of the clerestories above the nave and remodelling of the south transept. In my view, the tower bears comparison with the mighty tower and spire of St Wulfram’s in Grantham, which have been dated at about 1310 (see The Church of St Wulfram 2: The Spire and Tower by John Maddison, in The Making of Grantham the medieval town edited by David Start and David Stocker, Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire, 2011). If correct, this would mark a major phase of building at St Mary’s during the period of prosperity based on the wool trade in the years before the famines and pandemics the beset much of the 14th Century.

This page displays a series of recent pictures of the gargoyles and other carvings on the tower of St Mary’s, looking at those on each face of the tower in clockwise order: south, west, north and east. The pictures were taken with a Panasonic Lumix G1 camera using a 100-300 mm telephoto lens during August 2012. The pictures were taken from ground level and therefore give strongly foreshortened views of the carvings.

Layout of the Page: A general view of the carvings on each face of the tower is shown below on this page, followed by pictures of the gargoyles. However, because of the number of images in the complete set, all the images are presented in gallery format on a separate linked page – please click on this link or one of the links further down this page to view this gallery.

South Face of the Tower

The picture above shows the location of carvings at the top of the south face of the tower.

Click here for the complete set of pictures of the carvings on the tower.

West Face of the Tower

The picture above shows the location of carvings at the top of the west face of the tower.

Click here for the complete set of pictures of the carvings on the tower.

North Face of the Tower

The picture above shows the location of carvings at the top of the north face of the tower.

Click here for the complete set of pictures of the carvings on the tower.

East Face of the Tower

This oblique view shows the location of carvings at the top of the east face of the tower.

Click here for the complete set of pictures of the carvings on the tower.