St Mary's Church, Barnetby

St Mary's Church is a

The church dates from the 11th century, and some of the remaining fabric in the south wall of the nave is Anglo-Saxon.^[1][3] The tower was built in the 11th–12th century, and the tower arch, the north arcade, and the chancel date from the 13th century. More alterations were made in the 17th and 18th centuries, including the demolition of the north aisle, and the addition of a new east window to the chancel. In 1829 a gallery and a gallery window were added to the nave. Other alterations made during the 19th century include the replacement of the south porch with buttresses. During the 20th century some rendering was applied to the exterior of the church, and further repairs were carried out.

In 1927, the congregation stopped meeting in St Mary's, and began using St Barnabas church, a brick structure half a mile away in

In his well-regarded memoir, "No Moon Tonight, " Don Charlwood, an Australian navigator in RAF Bomber Command at nearby RAF Elsham Wolds in World War II, refers, movingly and repeatedly, to visits to St. Mary's.^[5]

Architecture

Exterior

St Mary's is constructed in a mixture of

The tower arch is pointed and is partly obscured by the west gallery. The gallery is carried on a pair of wooden columns. On the south wall of the nave is a blocked round-headed doorway, and on the north wall is the blocked arcade. The chancel arch is pointed, and in the chancel is a blocked south door. The chancel rails are in two bays with a central opening; they were made from a former 15th-century oak rood screen. The wooden octagonal pulpit dates from the late 18th or the early 19th century, and contains painted panels. In the tower is a carved stone infant's coffin.^[1] The lead Romanesque font that was formerly in the church has been moved to the North Lincolnshire Museum in Scunthorpe.^[1][3] There is a ring of three bells, but these are no longer ringable. The oldest bell was cast in 1578 by Henry I Oldfield, and the other two were made in about 1599 by John Woolley.^[6]

External features

The churchyard contains

• List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in the East of England

References