Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a building with a complex history, dating back to the 12th century with its chancel, followed by the nave aisles and west tower in the 13th century, and a south porch added in the late 14th century. It was restored in 1892 by W.S. Weatherley. The church is constructed of coursed cobbles, late medieval red brick, and stone dressings, with tiled roofs.

The west tower has three stages, featuring a chamfered plinth with offsets and diagonal buttresses. It includes a 19th-century window with ogee tracery to the second stage, paired lancet windows in a square-headed opening to the belfry, and crenellated parapet. The west window is comprised of paired lancets in a square-headed opening, with an ogee-headed niche above. The nave has a chamfered plinth and string course, with three 3-light pointed windows with Perpendicular tracery to the south aisle and three 2-light square-headed windows with cusped ogee tracery to the clerestory. A pointed south door has a continuous chamfer and hoodmould. The south porch features diagonal buttresses and a 4-centred arch to the doorway, with quatrefoil openings in the east and west walls, crowned by a crenellated parapet with gargoyles.

The chancel has a 3-light square-headed window with cusped ogee tracery to the west and two 3-light 4-centred windows with 19th-century tracery in a Perpendicular style to the east. A chamfered round-headed priests' door features chamfered imposts and a continuous hoodmould. The east end has a dwarf buttress beneath a pointed 5-light window with Perpendicular tracery under a hoodmould. A single lancet remains in the north wall. Beyond the nave's east gable are the remains of an earlier gable, coped with a brattished finial.

Inside, a quadruple-chamfered tower arch sits on polygonal responds. The nave arcades are from the 13th century, with waterholding bases. The piers are cylindrical, one being octagonal to the north, and are topped with round abaci supporting pointed, double-chamfered arches. A piscina with an ogee head is set into the south aisle wall. A 15th-century chancel arch separates the nave and chancel. The chancel has a squint to the north vestry and a blocked lancet. Aumbries are located on the north, south, and east walls, alongside the remains of a niche with a crocketed ogee canopy to the north wall.

The church contains brasses depicting William Darrell, Rector, who died in 1364, and Sir John de St. Quintin, died 1397, and his wife. A wall monument commemorates Reverend Charles Richardson, who died in 1755, featuring an inscription in an architrave beneath a broken pediment with a coat of arms. The octagonal font is reset on a 19th-century octagonal column and base. Significant amounts of 12th-century carved stone were incorporated into late 19th-century repairs and alterations to the west tower.