Building record 0257500000 - ST MARY'S CHURCH

Dimensions - Height 37m, Width 37m, Length 52m.
Plan Form - Cruciform.
Cruciform church, on highest spot in town. Of squared rubble, roughly coursed & part refaced with ashlar. Probably a C12 church on site. Chancel, tower, N & S aisles, transepts & transept chapels are C13. C14 components. Clearstorey etc of C15. Complete restoration by G Scott in 1850 (B1-2,B16,B27).
Grade I. The setting of the Church is in effect similar to a Cathedral Close on a small scale, and the variety of housing lining the sides of St Mary's Square, including the Museum and Prebendal House provides an architectural backqround of considerable interest and importance. Mainly C13 built partly on site of Saxon Church and extensively restored between 1804 - 1809. Cruciform plan. Saxon crypt under Lady Chapel, Norman font. Good C16 monument to Lady Lee in North transept. Many good tombs in church yard. All the listed buildings in St Mary's Square on the south side of Parson's Fee form a group with No 1 St Mary's Row and No 6 Pebble Lane (B17).
History of church bells (B19).
Buildings report held at NMR (B23).
Brief bibliography of published references in envelope file (B24).


Church of St Mary. The restoration by Scott took place between 1850-69 (B11).
The earliest concrete evidence for a Saxon church is that from Domesday, which records that in the reign of Edward the Confessor, the church of Aylesbury drew substantial tithes from the sokemen of the eight hundreds around Aylesbury. The payments were reduced after the Conquest, but it is clear that the late Saxon church was well established, and may probably correctly be regarded as a minster.
Excavations have suggested a late Saxon origin for the building. This lay on the same alignment as the later aisle arcades, the phase I have terminating beneath the second piers from the current West end of the nave. A square West tower was added at a later date, the footings indicating butt jointing to the nave wall, (phase II). A footing adjoining the South side of this tower may have belonged to a
contemporary cloister. Weathered loam above the tower footings indicates that the tower was removed long before the nave was extended in the C13th, the West nave wall possibly buttressed at the time to prevent collapse. The discovery of a large-bore lead pipe
encased in masonry which appears to be part of a C12th water distribution system within the church is unusual, and normally only associated with 'great' churches. It may be evidence for a small monastic community, and lend weight to the Saxon church being a minster (B14).
The Parish Church of St Mary is built of squared rubble, roughly coursed, and partly refaced with ashlar. The dressings are of stone. The roofs are covered with lead. There was probably a C12th church on the site, but it appears to have been entirely rebuilt in the first half of the C13th on a cruciform plan. The chancel, central tower and transepts, each with a small chapel on the East side, and the nave with its North and South aisles are of the C13th, and there was possibly also a South porch of the same date. In the C14th, a Lady chapel was built South of the South transeptal chapel, and the aisles were extended laterally to form chapels. In the C15th, the two-storeyed north vestry was added to the North of the North transeptal chapel, and the South porch was rebuilt, the whole building except for the chancel was re-roofed, and the clerestory added. Early in the C19th, the church was in a dangerous condition, because of foundation failure, and in 1850, a complete restoration was undertaken by Sir Gilbert Scott. The building, with its massive central tower, is of fine proportions. Among the fittings, the late C12th font is especially noteworthy, and has given a name to a type known as the 'Aylesbury' fonts. Legends associate two noble Saxon ladies, Saints Edburgha and Osyth, with a C7th religious foundation here. The current plan I ndicates that a former church was altered and adapted in the C13th. This former Norman church was cruciform, as now, with the nave and chancel the same width as the transepts, (21'). The old North wall of the nave and chancel being retained, it was widened to the South by 4', the new South walls being built just outside the lines of the former ones (B1 &B2).
Listed as a minster founded in the C7th. Further evidence for ecclesiastical activity is the recent discovery at the Iron Age hillfort, from which the `burh' element of Aylesbury is derived, of an C8th cemetery (B28).

This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence.