Amesbury, St Mary And St Melor's Church c.1955

Photo ref: A143045

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St Mary and St Melore's is basically Norman, large and built mainly of flint; its large squat Early English tower rests on triple chamfered arches and has three wide-spaced single bell openings. The east window is the work of Butterfield, who restored the church in 1853, ten years before he began work on Aldbourne. He put in the vivid coloured tiles on the east wall, and he is responsible for the Perpendicular south aisle and west end. The outline of a chapel remains in the east side walls. The jambs of an early 13th-century doorway west of the north-west corner of the truncated nave have been reset, but the door's purpose remains a mystery. The south aisle is early Perpendicular, and has a two-bay arcade with a pier of four shafts and four hollows, decorated capitals and arches of two hollow chamfers. The font is 12th-century and of Purbeck marble with shallow blank arches; a wooden pulpit, by Butterfield, stands on a chunky stone base. The stained glass is worth studying, as are the 15th- and 16th-century carved roofs. The clock on the tower came from Amesbury Abbey nearby - it was given to the church in 1971. Its mechanism is 15th- century, but it was altered to take a pendulum.

An extract from Wiltshire Churches Photographic Memories.