| Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick | |
| Founded Date: | 1123-? |
| Dedication: | Blessed Virgin Mary |
| Location: | Old Square |
| Address: | Old Square, Warwick CV34 4RA, United Kingdom |
| Denomination: | Church of England |
| Churchmanship: | High Church |
| Parish: | Warwick, St Mary |
| Deanery: | Warwick & Leamington |
| Archdeaconry: | Warwick |
| Diocese: | Coventry |
| Province: | Canterbury |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Pushpin Map: | Warwickshire |
| Vicar: | The Rev'd Canon Angus Aagaard CF |
| Organist: | Oliver Hancock (Director of Music) Mark Swinton (Assistant Director of Music) |
| Website: | website |
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.
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.
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 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]
The college was dissolved in 1546, and the church was granted by the Crown to the burgesses of Warwick. 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] The tower rises to the height of 130feet. 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]
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]
(The position of Organist was replaced with that of Director of Music from 1976)
(The position of Assistant Organist was replaced with that of Organist from 1989)
(from 1999 the position of Organist was combined with the new post of assistant director of Music)
Volume 2 (1908), pp. 124–129.
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"