Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick

The Collegiate Church of St Mary is a Church of England parish church in Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It is in the centre of the town just east of the market place. It is Grade I listed, and a member of the Major Churches Network.

Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick
Tower and nave of the church as viewed from Warwick Castle
Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick
52°16′56″N 1°35′17″W
Location	Old Square
Address	Old Square, Warwick CV34 4RA, United Kingdom
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	High Church
Website	website
History
Founded	1123-?
Dedication	Blessed Virgin Mary
Administration
Province	Canterbury
Diocese	Coventry
Archdeaconry	Warwick
Deanery	Warwick & Leamington
Parish	Warwick, St Mary
Clergy
Vicar(s)	The Rev'd Canon Angus Aagaard CF
Laity
Organist(s)	Oliver Hancock (Director of Music) Mark Swinton (Assistant Director of Music)

The church has the status of collegiate church as it had a college of secular canons. In governance and religious observance it was similar to a cathedral (although not the seat of a bishop and without diocesan responsibilities). There is a Bishop of Warwick, but this is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Coventry.

History

Foundation and early years

The church foundations date back nine hundred years, being created by Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick, in 1123.^[1] In addition to founding the church, de Beaumont established the college of dean and canons at the church. The only surviving part of the Norman church which de Beaumont had built is the crypt.

The chancel vestries and chapter house of the church were extensively rebuilt in the 14th century by a later Earl of Warwick, Thomas de Beauchamp (died 1369, later pronounced Beecham), in the Perpendicular Gothic style.^[2] Between c. 1370 and 1394, the chancel, transept, nave and aisles were rebuilt, then forming a basilica with wooden roofs.^[3] Thomas Beauchamp's descendants built the Chapel of Our Lady, commonly known as the Beauchamp Chapel. It contains the effigial monuments of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Buried in the chancel of the church is William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, the brother of queen consort Catherine Parr.^[4]

Sixteenth century onwards

The college was dissolved in 1546, and the church was granted by the Crown to the burgesses of Warwick.^[2] Before their destruction in the Civil War, Wenceslaus Hollar copied many of the stained glass windows in the Beauchamp Chapel, showing heraldry of the Beauchamp family.

The church, along with much of Warwick, was devastated by the Great Fire of Warwick in 1693. The nave and tower of the building were completely destroyed. In 1704, the rebuilt church was completed in a Gothic design by William Wilson (appointed by the Crown Commissioners).^[5] Sir Christopher Wren is also said to have contributed to the design, but that is disputed.^[1][2] The tower rises to the height of 130 feet (40 m).^[4] The design was described by John Summerson as being "as remarkable for its success as for its independence in style from other seventeenth-century English Gothic".^[6]

The church has been undergoing significant maintenance for renovation since early 2023 and is expected to be complete by the end of 2023. At a cost of £1.4 million, the renovation was planned after a piece of masonry fell from the church's tower.^[7]

Deans of the College

• Robert Plesset, 1282
• Thomas de Sodynton, 1290
• William de Apperley, 1297
• Robert Tankard, 1306
• Richard de Alcester, 1313
• Robert de Geryn, 1314
• Robert de Lee, 1321
• Thomas Lench, 1338
• Robert de Endredeby, 1340
• Nicholas Southam, 1361
• Thomas Yonge, 1395
• John Porter, 1432
• Robert Cherbury, 1443
• William Berkswell, 14
• John Southwell, 1469
• Edmund Albone, M.D., 1481
• Richard Brackenburgh, 1485
• William Stokedale, 1498
• Edward Haseley, 1498
• Ralph Colingwode, 1507
• John Allestre, 1510
• John Carvanell, 1515
• John Knightley, 1542

Music

Organs

There are two organs in St. Mary's, the transept organ and one at the west end. The specifications of both organs can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.^[8][9]

Organists (prior to 1976)

• William Witteney 1409
• John Soursby 1432
• John Skyrrowe 1562
• Richard Charpe 1565
• Thomas Dean 1719
• William Dean 1744
• Jonathan Hobbs 1773
• Mary Hobbs 1787
• Mrs R. Hobbs 1801
• James Marshall 1802
• Edward Dearle 1833
• William Clayton 1844
• W. Wyver 1861
• James Shaw 1864
• D. Middleton 1864
• Bernard Farebrother 1867
• Edwin Aspa 1871
• A.J. Sutton 1874
• Hanson de la Haye Blackith 1882
• William Bellamy 1886
• William McDuff 1894
• Allen Blackall 1898
• Peter Burton 1946
• Thomas Tunnard 1950
• Douglas Clarke 1958^[10]
• Geoffrey Holroyde 1962
• Andrew Fletcher 1973

(The position of Organist was replaced with that of Director of Music from 1976)

Directors of Music

• Andrew Fletcher 1976 (originally appointed as Organist in 1973)
• Paul Trepte 1981
• Simon Lole 1985
• Mark Shepherd 1994
• Chris Betts 1998
• Katherine Dienes 2001-2007
• Thomas Corns 2008-2017
• Oliver Hancock 2018

Assistant Organists

• Arthur Wills 1946-48
• Edward Higginbottom 1965-67
• Colin Roy 1967-1969
• Andrew Fletcher 1971-73
• Arthur Hilyer 1974
• Tim Peters
• Charles Matthews 1987-89

(The position of Assistant Organist was replaced with that of Organist from 1989)

Organists (from 1989)

• Kevin Bowyer 1989
• Christopher Monks 1998

(from 1999 the position of Organist was combined with the new post of assistant director of Music)

Organists and assistant directors of Music

• Christopher Monks 1999 (originally appointed as Organist in 1998)
• Luke Bond 2002 (assistant director of Music, Truro Cathedral from 2008 to 2017, then at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle)
• Ruaraidh Sutherland 2006 (Organist at Christ's Hospital from 2019)
• Mark Swinton 2011

Image gallery

• 
  The tower in 2016
• 
  From Northgate Street
• 
  Beauchamp Chapel
• 
  Beauchamp Chapel west wall
• 
  Church Nave Altar
• 
  The Crypt
• 
  Dean's Chapel
• 
  Interior looking east
• 
  Interior looking west
• 
  The view from within the Beauchamp Chapel
• 
  The entrance to the Beauchamp family chapel in St Mary's
• 
  Effigy of Ambrose Dudley on his tomb in the Beauchamp Chapel
• 
  Bear at feet of Ambrose Dudley on his tomb
• 
  Effigies of Robert Dudley and Lettice Knollys on their tomb in the Beauchamp Chapel
• 
  Effigy of Lettice Knollys.
• 
  Lion rampant queue-fourché, emblem of the Dudley family, on the Dudley/Knollys tomb
• 
  Inscription on rear panel of tomb of Robert Dudley and Lettice Knollys
• 
  Coat of Arms of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
• 
  Bear and ragged staff, emblem of the earls, city and county of Warwick. Tomb of Robert Dudley and Lettice Knollys
• 
  Effigy of Richard Beauchamp
• 
  Effigy of Robert Dudley, son of Robert Dudley and Lettice Knollys, known as the "Noble Impe", on his tomb in the Beauchamp Chapel
• 
  Tomb of Robert Dudley, the "Noble Impe"
• 
  Inscription on tomb of the "Noble Impe"
• 
  Scaffolding on the tower during maintenance works in 2023 from Castle Street

References

1. Cooke, Henry T. (1841). A Description of the Collegiate Church and Choir of St. Mary, Warwick and the Beauchamp Chapel Adjoining Thereto.
2. Smith, William (1830). A New & Compendious History, of the County of Warwick: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Comprising Views, of the Principal Towns, Buildings, Modern Improvements, Seats of the Nobility & Gentry, Ecclesiastical Edifices. W. Emans.
3. E-mail from 2023-08-03, 17:06 : "Thank you for your enquiry about St. Mary's. ...

   The following information about the pre-1694 church may help:

   1. The church tower was Norman, built about 1150.

   2. The nave and transepts were rebuilt at the same time as the chancel, so between 1370 and 1394 (approximately).

   3. The transepts were slightly shorter and slightly narrower than the present ones.

   4. The nave was the same width as the present church, but was a little shorter. The tower sat slightly to the east of the present one.

   5. The nave and transepts had a wooden roof. I assume it was of the hammer beam (open truss) type; it is too late to have been a barrel vault.

   6. The nave had clerestory windows, so a typical design for English churches of the time; it was not a hall church.

   7. A drawing was made after the 1694 fire which gives a likeness of the old church. You can see a copy at Universal Viewer - Digital Bodleian (ox.ac.uk)

   I hope that you find this useful, and we look forward to welcoming you to St. Mary's one day.

   Kind regards

   Tim Clark

   Church historian

   The collegiate church of St. Mary, Warwick"

4. "Warter - Warwick-Bridge", A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 475-482. Date accessed: 28 May 2011.
5. Sabin, John; Hands, John (1757). A Brief description of the Collegiate Church and Choir of St. Mary's in Warwick: With a concise account of the antiquities and curiosities of the same, and of the chapel adjoyning thereto. Henry Keating.
6. Summerson, John (1970). Architecture in Britain, 1530 to 1830. Pelican History of Art. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 265.
7. Smith, Kirstie (16 February 2023). "Warwick's iconic St Mary's Church gets much-needed funding to help complete restoration work". Warwickshire World. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
8. "Transept Organ", National Pipe Organ Register, British Institute of Organ Studies.
9. "West End Organ", National Pipe Organ Register, British Institute of Organ Studies.
10. The Canadian Encyclopedia

Further reading

• "Colleges: St Mary, Warwick", A History of the County of Warwick,

Volume 2 (1908), pp. 124–129.

External links

• Church website
• Vicar's website

• Christianity portal