Church of St Mary de Castro, Leicester


St Mary de Castro is a medieval Grade I listed church in Leicester, England, located within the bailey of Leicester Castle. It is a Church of England parish church in the Diocese of Leicester. De Castro is Latin for 'of the Castle'; to differentiate it from the nearby St Mary de Pratis; 'St Mary of the Meadows'.
The building was closed to the public from 2011to 2015 after the spire was found to be unsafe and was dismantled. The tower has lacked a spire since then, as funds are insufficient to repair the tower and replace the spire.
WWW stmarydecastro.org.uk

Architectural history

The foundation of the first church on the site dates to the year 918 and the reconquest of Danish-occupied Leicester by Anglo-Saxon forces under Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians, and Edward the Elder, both children of Alfred the Great. They were responsible for the reconstruction of the towns walls, the restoration of St Nicholas, and the first church on the site of Leicester Castle. It became a collegiate church by 1107 after Henry I of England granted the lands and castle to Robert de Beaumont, although the chronicler Henry Knighton implies that an Anglo-Saxon college of St Mary had already existed at the church before and that Robert merely refurbished it. Robert established it within the castle bailey as a college served by a dean and twelve canons in honour of the Virgin Mary and All Souls and as a chantry chapel for the souls of him, his family and the first three Norman kings. He endowed this and four other churches with £6 of his income and land in or near the city. However, in 1143 these endowments were all transferred by his son Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, to his own new Augustinian foundation of Leicester Abbey. The collegiate church retained, or had restored to it a dean, six clerks and a chaplain, along with Robert de Beaumont's grant of 20 shillings for lamps. It also retained parish offerings and most of the tithes. The collegiate nature of the church lasted until the college was disbanded in 1548 under the Chantry Act of Edward VI.
The early-12th-century church had no aisles, and various parts of these walls survive. It underwent a major expansion in the 1160, with a north aisle, doorways to north and west, and an extension to the chancel. The two doorways provide external Norman zigzag decoration, but it is the sedilia and piscina in the Chancel extension that Nikolaus Pevsner describes as "the finest piece of Norman decoration in the county". Thirteenth-century alterations culminated in a major reworking of transepts and south aisle, to create an aisle wider than the nave, providing much more space for local parishioners. The large geometrical traceried east window of the south aisle was created around 1300. The tower was built inside the south aisle, apparently as an afterthought, rising to a quatrefoil frieze, four decorated pinnacles, and the recessed parapet spire rising from behind the battlements. The spire was rebuilt in 1783, but retained its crockets and three tiers of lucarnes. The interior was heavily restored by George Gilbert Scott throughout the 1860s, at which time much of the stonework and furnishings were replaced.

Notable events

It is rumoured that here, around 1366, Geoffrey Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet.
The infant king Henry VI was knighted in the church at Whitsuntide 1426 by his uncle, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, the Regent of France. Henry then proceeded to himself dub a further 44 knights on the same occasion, the first of whom was Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York.
William Bickerstaffe, a charitable local schoolmaster and antiquarian, was baptised, buried and held a seven-year curacy at the church.
It is believed to have been the first church in the UK to be viewable online using Google Street View, having been photographed in August 2012.

Spire

The church was closed when the spire was found to be unsafe. The 14th-century octagonal spire, having been rebuilt in 1783, had developed six-metre-long cracks in four of its faces in September 2013. After inspections by structural engineers, it was deemed at risk of collapse. The severe condition of the spire meant it had to be demolished, at an estimated cost of £200,000, in 2014. Over £358,000 has been raised since 2011; however, there are currently insufficient funds to rebuild the spire and repair the tower.

Organ

The church contains a three manual pipe organ which was originally installed in 1860 by Forster and Andrews. It has been the subject of modifications and restorations in 1880 by Joshua Porritt, and R. J. Winn in 1960. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.

Organists