Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a church dating from the 13th to 15th centuries, with surviving Norman fabric and a south porch built in 1673. It was restored in 1897 by J.A. Cossins of Birmingham. The church is constructed of coursed squared stone and ashlar, with an ashlar tower, covered by Collyweston slate, lead, and a parapetted roof.

The building comprises a west tower, nave, aisles, chancel, a north chancel vestry, and a south porch. The west tower, likely built in the 13th or 14th century, is of three stages, featuring a plinth, clasping buttresses, and an enclosed stair with narrow slits in the southwest side. The tower has lancet windows on the north and south sides of the second stage, and four decorated bell openings on the top stage. A frieze of small heads adorns the tower, topped by a very fine, tall spire with small broaches and three tiers of lucarnes. The west window has restored perpendicular tracery. Inside the nave, there's a quadruple-chamfered arch, with two sides dying into triple-shafted, chamfered responds. A buttress stands on either side of the west window.

The north arcade comprises four bays with double hollow-chamfered arches with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, over slender octagonal piers. The north aisle, dating to around 1300, features three bays of chamfered and hollow-chamfered arches over octagonal piers. The clerestory has three quatrefoils to the north and three restored two-light perpendicular windows to the south. The roof is a low-pitched tie beam construction, dating from 1897, with wall pieces and curved braces resting on stone corbels. Within the north aisle, a northwest window has reticulated tracery, a north window features 20th-century stained glass by Donald Brooke of Long Compton, and a northeast window is a three-light perpendicular window set within an earlier arch. A cusped frame likely held a small painting. Set-off buttresses mark the exterior, and a blocked north door has a hollowed, chamfered arch.

The chancel, also dating to the 13th century, is lit by three lancets on the south side; one is set slightly diagonally and two have stained glass from 1896. A 19th-century north vestry is attached. An east window has restored reticulated tracery. The roof is a restored tie beam construction. In the south aisle, a southwest lancet incorporates fragments of a Norman tympanum within the wall. A 19th-century window sits within an earlier archway in the south side, and the south door is accessed through a porch dated 1673, possibly reusing an earlier arch. A sundial sits above the door. There is also a cusped one-light window with stained glass by Donald Brooke, situated behind the organ. This section of the south aisle was altered in 1897.

The nave has a frieze of small heads. Two 18th-century wall monuments are set in the east wall of the chancel. Inside the church, a font, restored in 1840, dates to around 1200. 17th-century panelling forms a dado in the chancel, depicting the Garden of Eden, the Ark, Daniel in the Lion's Den, the Golden Calf and heads of Saints. A pulpit, likely 17th century, sits on a later stone base, with a 1725 wall monument positioned above it. A painted hatchment displaying the Royal Arms of the early 19th century is located in the north aisle, and a 18th-century oak altar-rail is also present. References appear in White’s Leicestershire and Rutland (1877) and Pevsner’s architectural survey.