Church Of St Mary

The Church of St. Mary is a parish church built in 1878 by C. Hodgson Fowler on the site of a medieval church. It is constructed of squared sandstone in courses of varied thickness, featuring quoins and ashlar dressings. The roof is made of graduated grey/green slates, with roll-moulded ridge tiles and stone gable coping. The church has a 4-bay aisled nave with a south porch and a 3-bay chancel that includes a north vestry and organ chamber.

There are steps leading up to an open arch in the buttressed porch, which is topped by a steep gable. The inner double boarded doors are fitted with strap hinges. Both arches are pointed; the outer arch has three hollow chamfers beneath a leaf-stopped dripmould, while the inner arch features beakhead corbels and two wide chamfers. The pointed-arched windows have cusped Y-tracery in the aisles and chancel, with a three-light window in the east end of the south aisle showcasing intersecting tracery, and a similar four-light window on the west side. The east window has cusped reticulated tracery and a stepped sill string leading to the chancel. The clerestory windows are two-light, square-headed, and also have cusped tracery. Stone cross finials adorn the nave and the lower chancel, with coping on the pent aisle roofs.

Inside, the church features painted plaster with ashlar arcades and dressings. The nave roof has a collared king-post design supported by corbels, while the chancel roof is panelled. The double-chamfered pointed arcades rest on octagonal piers, and the chancel arch mirrors this design on head-corbelled shafts. A re-used two-light medieval window is present in the organ chamber. The tub font is set on a medieval octagonal pedestal and has three chamfered medieval shafts. There are 14 grave covers, some incomplete, with incised decoration, along with fragments of chevron moulding built into the north wall. The north chancel wall features a small brass commemorating Simon Comyer, who died in 1620, along with a brass coat of arms above it. The church also contains 19th-century chancel screens and furnishings. The stained glass includes some from the late 19th century, as well as two windows dated and signed in 1982 by G. Maile Studio from Canterbury, including one dedicated to St. Miriam, an organist. An early 19th-century poor box with two locks and an inscription in Roman capitals is also present.