Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church, originally 13th century, rebuilt 1854–1855 by S. S. Teulon. Constructed in dressed greenstone with slate roofs and a single stack to the east of the nave.

The building comprises a buttressed nave, tower, south porch and chancel. The 13th-century tower, set on a chamfered plinth, was heightened in the 19th century and is of two stages, with the top stage dating to the 19th century and slightly set back, featuring small angle buttresses. Single corner gargoyles ornament the west side.

The west wall contains a single arched two-light 19th-century window with reticulated tracery, hood mould and 14th-century human head label stops. Above is a single ogee-arched light with single transom. Similar single lights appear on the north and south sides. Four arched two-light 19th-century bell chamber openings feature plate tracery with lights divided by single clustered colonnettes.

The north nave displays three trefoil-arched 19th-century single-light windows with hood moulds; the central window has human head label stops, the remaining two have decorative label stops. To the left is a single 19th-century arched two-light window with reticulated tracery, hood mould and human head label stops. The north and south chancels are connected by a band forming a continuous sill band to the east wall and along the south chancel, except where it forms a hood mould at the single right window. The east wall contains a single three-light arched 19th-century window with cusped tracery, hood mould and human head label stops. The south chancel has a single arched 19th-century window with cusped tracery, and to its left is a single arched two-light 19th-century window with cusped tracery, hood mould and human head label stops. The south nave displays a single three-light arched 19th-century window with cusped tracery, hood mould and decorative label stops. To the left are two two-light arched 19th-century windows with cusped tracery and hood moulds; those on the right have human head label stops, those on the left decorative label stops. On the far left stands a gabled and coped porch with moulded and chamfered arched entrance, hood mould and human head label stops. Each side wall contains a single quatrefoil. The inner moulded arched doorway has hood mould and human head label stops.

Interior

The triple chamfered 13th-century tower arch opens into the nave. A moulded chancel arch is supported on responds of three foreshortened colonnettes, with the central colonnette featuring a fillet. These are further supported on single decorative corbels. The east window is flanked by single colonnettes with moulded arch, hood mould and human head label stops. The chancel roof is supported on two moulded capitals in turn supported on single carved angels.

The church contains a 15th-century ashlar font whose shaft is decorated with blind perpendicular tracery; the octagonal bowl displays eight shields with single carved heads above. A 15th-century bench with poppy heads is also present, along with a 17th-century chest with carving.

The south nave contains an arched tomb recess holding the restored 14th-century effigy of a cross-legged knight in chain mail, with shield and feet on a lion. Mounted onto a choir stall is a 15th-century brass of a female figure. A black stone tomb chest in the tower has sides decorated with shields set into roundels, surmounted by a wall tablet containing three brass plaques—two of shields and one inscribed to John Copledike (died 1557) and his wife (died 1552).

The chancel contains a further tomb chest to John Copledike (died 1585) and his wife (died 1582), with sides similarly decorated with shields. Four octagonal columns support a canopy with quatrefoil frieze and cresting. The back panel formerly held two brass figures and three shields, with blind tracery to the soffit. A memorial to Thomas Copledike (died 1658) features an apron decorated with a carved angel and is topped with a broken segmental pediment containing a shield. An alabaster memorial to Francis Copuldyck, his wife and family (1599) shows two kneeling figures with two smaller similar figures within a decorated aedicule flanked by single obelisks, with decorative apron and coloured cartouche flanked by coloured shields on the crown. A memorial to Anna Maria Amcotts (1700) bears a shield surmounting the tablet and another on the apron.