St Mary's Church

St Mary's Church in Wymeswold has been used by my ancestors for centuries . It is just a stone's throw away from Church Farm and over time it has been used for family funerals, baptisms and weddings including my own.

St Mary’s church is sited on a raised mound in the centre of the village immediately adjacent to the main A6006 road which also serves as Wymeswold high street. The church dominates the centre of the village.  

The first mention of a vicar dates from around 1220. Some of the earliest parts of the church that survive today are the south doorway, the pillars in the nave and the tower which are all 14th century. A fine spire was struck by lightning in 1783, it was damaged so badly that the remains had to be removed for safety.

Henry Alford in 1835 began his eighteen-year tenure of the vicarage of Wymeswold. He was Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge in 1841–1842 and steadily built up a reputation as scholar and preacher.

In 1844, he joined the Cambridge Camden Society (CCS) which published a list of do's and do nots for a church layout, which they promoted as a science. Henry enlisted the help of the architect, August Welby Pugin to restore the church. Pugin had already rebuilt a number of churches in the Gothic style during the 1830's and was working on thousands of drawings for the decoration of the new House of Commons. Pugin created a radical new look for the church, made in the Gothic manner. Pugin restyled the north porch, the room over it, and designed the furniture, the pews, the roof of the nave, a new font, light fittings, windows and sedilia in the south-east window recess of the chancel. The medieval rood screen, which earlier had been moved because of decay, was replaced by one of his own design in the altered chancel arch. A small section of the old screen can be seen on the baptistry wall. The lych gate was also built in the Gothic style and also a new school commissioned.

Henry Alford celebrated the completion of Pugin's work at Wymeswold in 1846 with a book detailing Pugin's visionary designs which certainly found its way into the hands of clergy, churchwardens and architects throughout the county and helped to inspire the desire for restoration in the Gothic style.

*Taken from sources including  'St Mary's restoration' By Bob Trubshaw
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