3. A male head, clean shaven and wearing a turban.
4. A female head with veil and with a barbe beneath the chin (carved in 1875
by F.Cox of Leicester).

On your right (south side) from the far end (east to west):
1. A male head, clean shaven, with a flat decorated cap.
2. A male head with short pointed beard and round flat cap.
3. A roughly carved male head with forked beard (broken)
4. A small roughly carved male head, clean shaved, with round cap.

PULPIT AND BRASS LECTERN
Erected in 1875 the pulpit is built of Attleborough and Bath stone with alabaster
columns. It replaced a fine carved Jacobean pulpit.
The brass eagle lectern was given by the Sunday School in 1888. The former
oak one is also still in use.

Safely out of reach of Puritan soldiers, and thankfully preserved by the Victorian restorers we have here the only woodwork to survive from
medieval times. The roof itself was renewed in 1875-8 but it rests on fine carved oak timbers placed here when the clerestory was added (late fourteenth or early fifteenth century). These tiebeams are embattled and are decorated with tracery, and carved heads. These beams are supported by eight large figures of angels, four on each side, beneath the main timbers. These are also about six hundred
years old. Their wings are raised above their heads, and they hold large plain heraldic shields in front of their bodies. No doubt these would have originally been brightly painted. Those on the north rest on wooden corbels, and those on the south on stone corbels, some of which are carved in the form of heads. Why have only the angels on the south side been given crowns?

On the wall near the pulpit is a painting by Jordano (or Giordano) Lucca of the aged Simeon holding the baby Jesus, with St Mary
looking on (see St. Luke Chapter 2, verses 25-35). The painting originally hung above the high altar. The painting is not valuable, but is of special interest because of the man who gave it to St. Mary’s. He was John Nichols, the famous printer and friend of Dr. Johnson,
who married Martha Green from Hinckley in 1778. He bought the painting from Christies, London and gave it to the church in 1782. Between 1795 and 1815 he produced eight huge volumes on the
History of Leicestershire. They are full of the most incredible detail, with many beautiful copper plate engravings. Not surprisingly the venture lost him £5,000 – a fortune in those days. St Mary’s possesses the volume which includes illustrations and much valuable information about this church and others in the area.

Portrait of Dr Chessher painted by
William Bass , now hanging in John Cleveland College

There is a large memorial to Dr Robert Chessher high on the wall on the right of the High Altar, but very difficult to see. This is a pity because he was the first known orthopaedic surgeon and had his
surgery in Hinckley. Born here in 1750, his father died when he was a youngster and his mother remarried Mr William Whalley, a Hinckley surgeon whose headstone is in the churchyard close to
the end of the chancel. Robert became an assistant to his stepfather and at the age of 18 went to London to study medicine. He became House Surgeon  at the Middlesex Hospital and when his stepfather died in 1778 he returned to Hinckley to take over his father’s practice. Robert became interested in ‘skeletal injuries’ and devised mechanical devices to aid treatment especially of spinal injuries. As the memorial says in its long flattering inscription, he invented ‘a new and most successful treatment of spinal deformity’. He was the first to use the surgical collar. Many famous people came from all over the country to be treated by him in Hinckley. One of these was the young son of George Canning, the Foreign Secretary, and briefly Prime Minister. The boy suffered from lameness in one of his legs. The Cannings took up residence locally in 1807, and stayed several years so that their beloved son could be helped to walk again by Dr Chessher. William Wilberforce also came for treatment. There is a street in the town, off Trinity Lane, named after Dr Chessher. When he died in his house on Castle Street in 1831, aged 79 he left £1,900 in trust to provide bread and blankets for the poor of Hinckley. He was buried in the nearby village of Peckleton.

This very fine seventeenth century monument on the north side of the chancel, could easily be missed on a visit to St. Mary’s. As you look Eastwards it is hidden from view by the organ case. It commemorates John Oneby (pronounced ‘owner – bee’) who died in 1662, his wife Emmett and their five children, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Emmett, Mary and John. (The married girls are on the left, the unmarried on the right!) They lived at the Priory House, just below the church. Below this monument is a brass dated MDCCLXXXVI (1786). The inscription is in Latin and records the names of those who contributed towards the cost of restoring the monument above, including the two daughters of Nichols the historian and Robert Oneby, a descendant.

This altar table was put here in 1888. It was later extended to its present length to fit the reredos (1920) which commemorates the nearly 400 men from Hinckley who fell in the First World War. Their names are recorded on the War Memorial tablet in the north aisle. The reredos is of carved oak, decorated in gold and colours. In the centre is Christ seated in majesty, with the orb in his left hand symbolising his kingly power, with the twelve apostles on either side, each with his emblem. From left to right: James the Less with boat, Jude (Thaddaeus) with club, Judas
Iscariot with book, Matthew with set square, James the Greater with book and shell, Peter with keys, John with book, chalice and eagle, Andrew with his cross, Bartholomew with knife, Thomas Didymus ‘the twin’ - doubting Gargoyle, Exterior, East Window. Thomas - with spear, Philip with fish, and Simon the Zealot with book and stick. More information about the twelve apostles and the symbols they carry is available in a separate leaflet. The riddel posts on either side of the altar are surmounted by angels with candlesticks (recently gilded). The oak candlesticks were made by Wilf Parsons, a former churchwarden, to
replace the brass ones which were stolen along with the brass alms dishes in the 1980s. An old brass alms dish was given in 1992, and soon afterwards the original alms dish was recovered from an auction at Wolvey where it was about to be sold! (It had been stolen from St Mary’s some years previously). It is inscribed: ‘Presented to Hinckley Parish Church by Wm Crow Churchwarden 1873-1887’. A pair of old brass candlesticks was donated in 1995. Other brass items were stolen from the church at different times including a fine processional cross: it was the policy until the 1980s to keep the church open, but there was no-one on duty to look after the contents. On the south side of the altar are a piscina (medieval drain for disposing of water after Communion) and sedilia of three seats. Before you leave the chancel notice, opposite the organ, the beautiful carved oak screen (1929).