St Mary-at-Hill church (TQ 3307 8076) was damaged by fire in 1988. This paper describes architectural and archaeological recording undertaken during the restoration programme.

Above traces of Bronze Age and Roman activity, excavation revealed a series of 13th – 15th-century foundations. These are mostly in positions consistent with the layout of the medieval church as it can be inferred from documents of the period 1420 – 1559. Both the north and the south wall of the standing building are medieval in origin, and a series of 16th-century, and earlier, features were recorded. It is suggested that four burials beneath the main medieval foundations may be remnants of an extra-mural cemetery attached to an unlocated earlier medieval church on a slightly different site.

During the Great Fire of 1666 the church was gutted, though most of the masonry survived. Rebuilt by Wren between 1670 and 1674, it has often been cited as a classic implementation of the ‘Greek Cross’ plan form. The present report demonstrates that this view requires some qualification: the three-aisled character of the medieval church was preserved to some extent, and a fully regular Greek Cross was imposed only by modifications in the 19th century.

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