Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick

The church foundations date back nine hundred years, being created by Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick, in 1123.[1] In addition to founding the church, de Beaumont established the college of dean and canons at the church. The only surviving part of the Norman church which de Beaumont had built is the crypt.

The chancel vestries and chapter house of the church were extensively rebuilt in the 14th century by a later Earl of Warwick, Thomas de Beauchamp (died 1369, later pronounced Beecham), in the Perpendicular Gothic style.[2] Between c. 1370 and 1394, the chancel, transept, nave and aisles were rebuilt, then forming a basilica with wooden roofs.[3] Thomas Beauchamp's descendants built the Chapel of Our Lady, commonly known as the Beauchamp Chapel. It contains the effigial monuments of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Buried in the chancel of the church is William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton, the brother of queen consort Catherine Parr.[4]

The college was dissolved in 1546, and the church was granted by the Crown to the burgesses of Warwick.[2] Before their destruction in the Civil War, Wenceslaus Hollar copied many of the stained glass windows in the Beauchamp Chapel, showing heraldry of the Beauchamp family.

The church, along with much of Warwick, was devastated by the Great Fire of Warwick in 1693. The nave and tower of the building were completely destroyed. In 1704, the rebuilt church was completed in a Gothic design by William Wilson (appointed by the Crown Commissioners).[5] Sir Christopher Wren is also said to have contributed to the design, but that is disputed.[1][2] The tower rises to the height of 130 feet (40 m).[4] The design was described by John Summerson as being "as remarkable for its success as for its independence in style from other seventeenth-century English Gothic". [6]

There are two organs in St. Mary's, the transept organ and one at the west end. The specifications of both organs can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.[7][8]

(The position of Organist was replaced with that of Director of Music from 1976)

(The position of Assistant Organist was replaced with that of Organist from 1989)

• Kevin Bowyer 1989
• Christopher Monks 1998

(from 1999 the position of Organist was combined with the new post of assistant director of Music)

• Christopher Monks 1999 (originally appointed as Organist in 1998)
• Luke Bond 2002 (assistant director of Music, Truro Cathedral from 2008 to 2017, then at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle)
• Ruaraidh Sutherland 2006 (Organist at Christ's Hospital from 2019)
• Mark Swinton 2011