Tuesday 3 July 2018

Churches (20) : St Mary, Melton Mowbray

"The stateliest and most impressive of all churches in Leicestershire" according to Pevsner [1] and it's hard to argue with that. St Mary's dates mostly from the late 1200s with fifteenth century additions. The lowest part of the tower is Norman and dates from 1170.

The church is built on a plan more usual with cathedrals, having a transept flanked by aisles - a rare feature for a "mere" parish church, and has a thirty metre tall tower. The church dominates the town of Melton Mowbray. By the twenty first century the church was in a poor state of repair and a two million pound appeal was begun to raise funds for renovations and improvements including improved accessibility. Work was completed in late 2017.



[1] Nicholas Pevsner, Leicestershire and Rutland (Penguin, 1960) p. 188