The original church was cruciform, but the N aisle was demolished in the C18. The N arcade is Norman with a C18 infill. Early English work exists in the lower stages of the tower and in the S arcade. The remainder of the building is mainly Perpendicular. In 1892 the roof was removed and the church abandoned. It is now a crumbling ruin, and the tower is in danger of collapsing. (2)
The church at Colston Bassett was endowed to Launde Priory in 1125. (3)
The remains of this church are in an isolated situation. The surrounding burial ground is still in use. (5)
Church built and endowed by the Abbey of Launde, in Leicester, in 1293, on the site of an older church certainly of Norman date, whose pillars remain. Now a roofless ruin, superseded by the village church of St John the Divine, which was consecrated in 1892. The N arcade is of Norman date, and the S arcade was of the C13 and C14. The chancel and tower arch are C14. The tower, now propped up, is of C15 date with a panel frieze. Pevsner (9) states that the S transept must have had an uncommonly sumptuous S window; this has now disappeared. (6)
The church is situated in an isolated spot on a hillside. The church is fenced around and an old sign warns how dangerous it is. There is a massive crack down the W side of the tower, the whole looks perilously near collapse. The graveyard is still in use and the area around the more recent graves is well maintained. (7)
Once a stately building with two aisles and a S transept. Then the depopulation of the Wolds did away with the N aisle and set windows with Gibbsian intermittent rustication in the new wall. In 1892 … the Church Commissioners ordered [R. Millington Knowles] to unroof the [church] to convert it to a ruin. (9)
One piece of oolitic limestone bearing interlace design on one face, believed to date from the Anglo Saxon period, which might suggest that St. Mary's was founded during C10, or at least that its prominent site was selected for Christian worship at this time. The current position of surface building debris suggests it has fallen from the adjacent portion of the medieval structure or the wall top, where it had been re-used in the wall cap following removal of the roof in C19. Amongst these re-used stones were pieces of late medieval window jamb, tracery and mullion, many of which may have been derived from the now vanished E window of the chancel. (10)
The date is uncertain…although…there was a building of some size on the site by the early 12th Century. The isolated location and sub-circular churchyard at Colston Bassett could also point to Pre-Conquest origins. Earliest documentary reference: in1119 and 1125 Henry I confirmed the grant of the church of Coleston to Launde Priory (Leics). At the Dissolution the advowson passed to the Crown (Young 1941, 3). The earliest surviving representation of the church is on a map, said to be of ‘Elizabethan’ date (c.1600), which now only survives as a C19 copy. By the mid C19 the old church was suffering structural problems and was…inaccessible…when the River Smite was in flood. …a licence was granted in 1872 for divine services to be held in the village school room. (11)
See M843 for possible shifted village.

Data Held: Aerial Photograph (Aerial photograph). SNT2645.

FXH 3326/10A

Data Held: Ground Photograph (Ground photograph). SNT2646.

1 Colour print, neg E76/5, SMR

Data Held: Ground Photograph (Ground photograph). SNT2646.

16 colour print, incl 14/18 (negs F30/4), SMR

Listed buildings slides, 55 slides (Photograph). SNT2648.

Unknown, St Mary's ruined Church (Plan). SNT4291.

Unknown, St Mary's ruined Church (Plan). SNT4292.

Graham Beaumont & UoN, 14/07/94, St. Mary's church - bell frame dendro report. (Plan). SNT4111.

RYDER, P F, 1995, St. Mary's Church, Colston Bassett, Notts - Structural Interpretation and Archaeologiocal Assessment Report (Unpublished document). SNT5670.

Unknown, May '76 - No, St. Mary's church - phased plans & elev's; state of ruins; gargoyles; (Plan). SNT4359.

<1> OS, 1956, 6in 1956 (Map). SNT1070.

<2> Peverel Archaeology Group, 1952, Ann Rept 4, p 21 (Published document). SNT1122.

<3> VCH, 1954, Leics, Vol 2, p 10 (Published document). SNT1382.

<4> DOE (HHR), --/12/1960, Bingham Rural District - Provisional List, p 5 (Published document). SNT629.

<5> Colquhoun FD, 1975, Pers Comm (Personal comment). SNT583.

<6> DOE, AM7 - undated, no author (Unpublished document). SNT52.

<7> Dodd A, 1988, AM107 (Unpublished document). SNT620.

<8> Thoroton Society, 1978, TTS, p 11 (Published document). SNT391.

<9> Pevsner N, 1979, The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire 2nd ed., p 105 (Monograph). SNT4.

<10> Caroline Atkins Consultants, Feb 2002, St Mary's Church, Colston Bassett, Nottinghamshire. Archaeological Watching Brief Associated with the Programme of Consolidation. An Interim Report., pp 5, 6 (Unpublished document). SNT2522.