Meesden

88. MEESDEN.

(O.S. 6 in. ix. S.E.)

Ecclesiastical

(1). Parish Church of St. Mary, about ½ mile E. of Meesden Green, is built of flint, with clunch, oolite and Barnack stone dressings, and has a brick porch; the roofs are tiled. The Nave is of early 12th-century date; the unusually small North and South Transepts or chapels were added c. 1250; the Chancel appears to have been re-built c. 1300, when it was made the same width as the nave. At some subsequent period the transepts were destroyed, but were re-built on the old foundations in 1877, and the arches giving access to them, which had been filled in, were re-opened.

The tiled pavement, of early 14th-century date, in the chancel, is especially interesting.

Architectural Description—The Chancel (20 ft. to the chancel step and 15½ ft. wide) has an E. window of three lights under a pointed head, a N. window and a S. window, each of two lights under a square head; all have 14th-century rear arches and possibly old inner jambs, re-worked, but, like all the other windows in the building, are modern outside. The Nave (41 ft. long from the chancel step to the W. wall, and 15½ ft. wide) has a traceried S. window of two lights, with 15th-century inner jambs, and two similar, but entirely modern, windows in the N. wall. E. of the windows are the 13th-century arcades of clunch, opening into the N. and S. transepts; they are of two bays (only 4 ft. wide) and have octagonal pillars and responds with moulded bases and capitals, pointed arches of two orders, each with a hollow in a chamfer, and moulded labels with mask stops. The 12th-century S. doorway, of oolite, is plain, with square jambs, grooved and hollow-chamfered abaci and a semi-circular arch; a 14th-century doorway in the W. wall is of Barnack stone, and has a pointed drop-arch. The South Porch has an E. window of two lights, and an archway with moulded jambs and depressed arch, all in brick; over the archway is a brick corbel table and an embattled and stepped gable. The Roofs are modern; above the W. end is a modern wood bell-cot.

Fittings—Font: of stone, with panelled sides, 17th-century. Monument: on the N. wall of the chancel, of Robert Younge, with his bust in a circular niche, 1626. Niches: in the face of the S. porch, above the entrance, a small arched niche, in which is set a brick disc with a molet in relief: in the face of the S.E. diagonal buttress of the porch, with a trefoiled head, c. 1530. Plate: includes a silver cup and standing paten of 1621. Tiles: in the pavement of the altar pace or platform (9 ft. 5 in. by 7 ft. 2 in.), glazed tiles in black (or very dark green) and yellow (or white) in circular and other patterns, and circular, quatrefoil, cinquefoil and other shapes, two as shields, one is charged, barry vair; early 14th-century.

Condition—Good.

Secular

(2). Homestead Moat, at Meesdenbury, fragment.