Nave of c.1200. The S porch … seems E.E. throughout. All windows Perp. (1)
Church of St Mary has a C12 S doorway, a transitional N arcade, and C15 windows in the nave, chancel and N aisles. The W tower was heightened in the C13; the roofs renewed in 1907 and 1936. (2)
The oldest visible part … is the Norman S door, put back into the south wall when it was rebuilt, and the porch added, early in the 13th century. The N arcade is Transitional work and the lower stage of the tower Early English. (3)
WALL PAINTINGS
…contains significant remains of medieval painted decoration on the south side of the north arcade that permits an insight into the original decorative scheme applied to the arcade. Fragments of paint elsewhere in the building provide hints of the nature of later decorative schemes. The paintings were revealed by the stripping of plaster and lime wash from the interior during restoration in 1907 but to date appear to have escaped study or academic attention. Examination of the painting by the writer in 2015 lead to a photographic survey of the most easily detected painted elements and a photogrammetric survey of the painting on the north arcade, in 2016. The digital model of the arcade produced by the photogrammetric survey was used to produce a scale drawing of the arcade and a record of the surviving painting.The drawing was used as a base on which a reconstruction of the surviving elements of the decorative scheme of the arcade were reconstructed. Stylistic parallels and the stratigraphic position of the scheme indicate that the painting is contemporary with the construction of the arcade and was painted c.1200AD. Medieval wall paintings are particularly rare in Nottinghamshire; the existence of such an extensive and more or less intelligible decorative scheme from this early period is unique amongst the presently known Nottinghamshire examples and is rare regionally. More significantly, Cuckney allows a relatively complete painted decorative scheme to be examined from a period when it has been argued that the masons of parish churches were deliberately and consciously designing arcades that showcase variety and difference, for the sake of creativity. The paintings at Cuckney (and a similar scheme at Wartnaby, Leicestershire) show that this love of creativity and variance was not just the preserve of masons, but was also a concern of the painter. Indeed, the painting seems to deliberately accentuate and magnify the variety of the architecture, as well as providing variation to plain and unvaried elements of the architecture (such as the arches); while parish church masons of the late 12th and early 13th century sought variety it seems fair to claim that, at least in these cases, it was actually the decorative painters who guaranteed it! A drive towards uniformity is seen from the 13th century onwards. The highly significant painted decoration at Cuckney deserves to be more widely known and is suggested to be of at least regional, if not national, significance. (4)

See M4376 for castle, occupies churchyard; L8707 for burials.

Listed buildings slides, 12 slides (Photograph). SNT2648.

<1> Pevsner N, 1979, The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire 2nd ed., p 110 (Monograph). SNT4.

<2> DOE (HHR), --/03/1962, Worksop Rural District - Provisional List, p 11 (Published document). SNT638.

<3> Thoroton Society, 1951, TTS, p 26-8 (Published document). SNT365.

<4> Mercian Archaeological Services, 2018, Cuckney Church Paintings Survey (Unpublished document). SNT5211.