Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a church dating back to the 12th century, with significant alterations and additions made in the early 13th, 14th, and 17th centuries. It is constructed of ashlar stone, with brick used for the upper portion of the west tower, and has lead and tiled roofs. The church comprises a 12th-century nave, an early 13th-century west tower that was rebuilt in the 17th century, an early 14th-century chancel, and a 14th-century south nave chapel, which was recast in 1635.

The west tower is a three-stage structure with crenellated parapets and brick lancet windows. The west elevation features a blocked pointed doorway with a continuous chamfer and, above it, a three-light square-headed mullioned window. There are lancets lighting inaccessible chambers to the north and south of the tower. The south door is a three-order design with nook-shafts decorated with zigzag and roll moulding, and incorporates a late medieval ogee-headed niche. The south chapel has buttresses with offsets and two three-light mullioned windows, topped with a crenellated parapet that displays the coat of arms of the Estoft family. The chancel features a high chamfered plinth, buttresses, and three two-light pointed windows with ogee tracery, culminating in a five-light pointed east window with reticulated tracery above a dwarf buttress.

Inside, a screen from around 1893, designed by Temple Moore and incorporating earlier 17th and 18th century panelling, separates the west end. A two-bay arcade leads to the south chapel with pointed double-chamfered arches on an octagonal pier. Remains of a 12th-century chancel arch have been rebuilt. An 18th-century pulpit, reader's desk, and sounding board are constructed from raised and fielded panelling, accessed by a closed-string staircase with turned balusters and a moulded handrail. The chancel contains a small trefoil-headed piscina and a squint to the south chapel. The nave roof is low-pitched with floral bosses, while the chancel has a pointed, panelled, and bossed timber vault. The south chapel, remodeled as the Estoft family shrine in 1634/5, houses a tomb to Mary Moyser, featuring an effigy and extensive heraldic panelling displaying 173 coats of arms related to the family.