Crundale - The Church of St. Mary the Blessed Virgin

The Church from the Southeast © PE Blanche 2000

The Chancel at St. Mary's Church, Crundale. © PE Blanche 2000

The Nave and Chancel, St. Mary's Church, Crundale. © P.E. Blanche 2000

A strange little church that hugs the top of a hill quite some distance from the actual Village of Crundale. I have mentioned on other pages about some churches being distanced from the villages they are associated with, perhaps because outbreaks of the plague. In this particular situation there is another explanation which may also apply to some other parish churches, particularly when they are located deep in the countryside. The parish of Crundale once consisted of four manors (now known as estates) and benefactors of the Church lived in all these manor houses in the valleys around the church at different times. Therefore, a good political decision obviously resulted in the local church being equidistant from the various manors, which I'm assuming, resulted on it being placed on the top of the hill on which it stands and not in the Village of Crundale.

Having said this, this is also evidence of there being a Roman structure here at one time (it actually stands beside an old Roman road) and there was also a Saxon Church on the site before the present structure. This then raises the question, was there also Saxon settlements on the same sites as the later Manor houses? I don't know the answer but it is, of course, quite possible.

It is a pleasant little Church and to me reflects it's very rural location. It is not impressive from the outside with its rather squat tower and tiny spire but inside it is neat and clean and obviously lovingly cared for. It has been built and added to and remodeled over the centuries with the earliest parts of the present Church in the Cancel, dating from the late 13th Century. The tower was also built or reconstructed in the 13th Century which is early for a tower and may follow parts of a Norman Church that was here after the Saxon Church. One of the most recent renovations was the rebuilding of the eastern wall of the Church in the late 19th Century completed mainly with the local flint.

There are several small vaults under the Church including one for the Carter family under the centre of the Nave. Tablets to members of the family are set in the floor at this point. On the wall in the Chancel are wall tablets to two members of the Filmer family who were Rectors of the Church in the late 18th Century and the mid 19th Century. The altar rails and the reredos are very early 18th Century. In the ends of the altar rails are the initials of the two Church Wardens at the time, T.B. - Thomas Boulding and N.P. - Nicholas Page.

The East end of the Church © PE Blanche 2000

The Village of Crundale located in the Valley below the Church. © PE Blanche