St Mary's Church, Nottingham

St Mary’s stands on High Pavement in Nottingham’s historic Lace Market. The church is the city’s oldest parish church and one of only five Grade I listed buildings in Nottingham. It occupies a site first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 and has Saxon origins. The present building dates mainly from the late 14th to early 16th century, with the nave completed before 1475. The tower was finished in Henry VIII’s reign and the west front rebuilt in the 18th century. The church has been a centre of local life for centuries, from medieval priory ownership to its role in founding Nottingham High School in 1513. The church’s history includes many firsts and notable events. In 1649 George Fox, founder of the Quakers, was imprisoned here after interrupting a preacher. The first Sunday school in England opened at St Mary’s in 1751, thirty-five years before the recognised Gloucester school. The chantry door, dating from the 1370s or 1380s, is Nottingham’s oldest surviving door and contains medieval ironwork. Major restorations by architects such as George Gilbert Scott in the 19th century returned the church to its Gothic style. Inside, visitors find a rich collection of late Victorian stained glass by makers like Kempe and Hardman & Co. The reredos above the altar is by Charles Edgar Buckeridge. The octagonal medieval font bears a palindromic Greek inscription. Bronze doors designed by Henry Wilson in 1904 illustrate the life of Christ in relief panels. The Lady Chapel was added in 1912 and the Chapter House built in 1890. The church’s setting in the Lace Market links it to Nottingham’s industrial past while its architecture points back to the Middle Ages.