Church Of St Mary

This parish church dates from the late 12th century and early 13th century, with parts rebuilt in the 14th, 15th and 18th centuries, and restorations in the early and late 19th century and 20th century. The building is constructed of ashlar with some coursed rubble, has lead roofs (the north porch with plain tiles), and comprises a south-west tower, nave, aisles, north and south porches, vestry and chancel.

The Tower and Spire

The early 13th-century south-west tower was originally detached from the main body of the church until the aisles were widened. It is topped with an early 13th-century herringbone lead-covered timber spire. The tower has three stages with bands and is set on a plinth which is chamfered in parts. Stepped angle buttresses lead to clasping octagonal buttresses at the third stage, terminating in small herringbone lead spires topped with single orbs. A corbel table extends around the buttresses. The lower two stages of the buttresses have nook shafts, apart from the south-west buttress which is a stair turret.

Four sides of the tower have large pointed, stepped arches, formerly open but now blocked with rubble, with responds of circular columns with moulded capitals and hood moulds over. The west side now contains a single 20th-century window with two arched and cusped lights, with a single small rectangular light above. The north side has a blocked pointed chamfered arched doorway. The east side has a single decorative wall memorial surmounted by a single blocked rectangular light, and the south side has a 19th-century pointed moulded arched doorway with hood mould and label stops, with a single small rectangular light above and a sundial above that.

The second stage has to each side a blind arcade of five pointed arches with circular colonnettes, moulded capitals and continuous hood moulds. The second left and right arches are now louvred openings. Above, to each side of the bell chamber, is a single detached Y-traceried opening behind which is a further three-light opening with intersecting tracery, each light flanked by single colonnettes with moulded capitals. Either side are single blind pointed arches with single similar arches to each face of the buttress. The east and west sides of the tower have single clock faces.

Exterior: West End

The west wall of the south aisle is set on a moulded plinth and has a single restored 14th-century arched four-light window with cusped flowing tracery, hood mould and continuous sill band. To the left is the west nave wall with two 12th-century flat buttresses and central moulded arched doorway with blind traceried double doors, hood mould and worn human head label stops. To the right are the remains of three memorials. Above is a large 19th-century arched five-light window with cusped flowing tracery, hood mould, 14th-century human head label stops and continuous sill band. Above this is a single arched and cusped niche.

The west and north walls of the north aisle are set on a moulded plinth. The west wall has a single restored 15th-century arched five-light window with cusped panel tracery, hood mould and continuous sill band, which extends around the north and east fronts.

Exterior: North Side

The buttressed north wall, with decorative blind cusped panels to the westernmost buttress, has two restored 15th-century arched three-light windows with cusped panel tracery and hood moulds. To the left is the angle-buttressed late 14th-century porch, rebuilt in 1873, with a single ridge cross. It has a moulded arched entrance, the inner order supported on colonnettes with moulded capitals, and a single cusped niche over. The west and east walls have single pairs of 20th-century arched and cusped lights with continuous hood mould and label stops. The inner doorway is ogee arched with a frieze of quatrefoils to the soffit, rectangular hood mould with label stops, and the spandrel decorated with panels of blind tracery.

To the left of the porch are seven similar restored 15th-century three-light windows with hood moulds. The east wall has a single 19th-century arched four-light window with cusped tracery, hood mould and label stops.

Exterior: Nave and Clerestory

The nave is embattled with single ridge crosses and single corner crocketed pinnacles to east and west ends. The 18th-century clerestory has eight bays with six restored three-light four-centred arched windows with cusped panel tracery, the outer single bays being blind. Single triangular pilaster strips separate each bay. The east wall of the nave shows evidence of a former chancel roof.

Exterior: Chancel

The north wall of the chancel has a single-storey projecting bay with a doorway with plank door under a 19th-century decorative flat arch. Above is a single 15th-century arched three-light window with cusped panel tracery. Clasping the north-east corner is the 14th-century polygonal monk's cell or vestry with conical stone slate roof, set on a chamfered and moulded plinth and of two stages, the upper stage slightly set back and with a chamfered band. The east side has a decorative memorial; the south side has a single window with two arched and cusped lights under a flat arch, hood mould and label stops, with a single small arched and cusped light under a flat arch above.

The east chancel is set on a moulded plinth and has angle buttresses to the south with some decoration. It has a single large arched 19th-century five-light window with cusped tracery, 14th-century ball flower surround, hood mould and worn label stops. The south chancel has a single restored 15th-century arched window with three lights above and below a single transom, cusped panel tracery, hood mould and label stops.

The chancel has north and south parapets. The remainder of the building has coped gables.

Exterior: South Side

The south aisle is buttressed and set on a moulded plinth. The east wall has a single 19th-century arched four-light window with cusped tracery, hood mould, label stops and continuous stepped sill band. The south wall has a continuous sill band broken by the porch, and seven arched restored 14th-century windows each with three lights above and below a single transom, cusped tracery, hood mould and worn human head label stops.

To the left is the 15th-century angle-buttressed two-storey porch, the parvise restored in 1873, set on a moulded plinth. There is a single stack to the rear. The buttresses contain single niches with hood moulds and finials to the south. The entrance is a moulded pointed arch with blind traceried spandrels, continuous stepped hood mould forming a sill band to the flanking blind traceried panels. Above is a frieze of blind trefoil arches, each arch containing a shield. Over the frieze is a band and above a single 19th-century arched window with three arched and cusped lights, hood mould and label stops. Either side are single chamfered arched niches with decorative hood moulds and finials; under each niche is a carved coat of arms. The east wall has a single small arched window with two arched and cusped lights, hood mould and label stops.

To the right is the polygonal stair turret, the top stage with a single arched and cusped light under a flat arch to each face. The west side has single similar two-light windows on each floor. Over the lower window is a single small rectangular opening. The south porch is also embattled.

Interior: Porches

The interior of the south porch has stone benches. Three slim colonnettes on each side support the two-bay vault of tierceron stars with bosses. The east side has a moulded arch to the stair turret. The moulded arched early 14th-century south doorway has a single order of colonnettes and remains of stiff-leaf capitals, hood mould and human head label stops. To the left is a fragment of lead detailing the 1802/3 repairs to the spire. To the left, in the aisle, are two 14th-century windows each of three lights with reticulated tracery and hood mould.

Interior: Nave Arcades

The nave has seven-bay late 12th-century arcades with round chamfered and stepped arches. The circular columns, apart from the central two to each side which are octagonal, all have nicked square abaci with scalloped capitals. There are triple-shafted responds with scalloped capitals. A continuous hood mould runs to the nave side and a continuous band over. There is a single human head corbel to the south aisle.

Above is the former late 12th-century clerestory, now a blind triforium, having seven round-arched single-splay openings flanked by single colonnettes with scalloped capitals, hood moulds and continuous impost band. The opening second from the east on the south side has been enlarged. The aisle sides have blind arcading of round arches supported on colonnettes with scalloped capitals and continuous hood mould.

The chancel arch is heightened, chamfered and stepped with remains of triple responds with scalloped capitals.

Interior: Chancel Arcades

The chancel has two-bay late 15th-century arcades to the aisles with moulded arches, octagonal columns and responds and moulded capitals. The west respond on the north side is partly 12th century, being circular to the lower portion. There are remains of a 12th-century corbel table to the north aisle side.

The east window has a 14th-century surround of two orders of ball flower, hood mould and human head label stops. The north wall has a blocked chamfered arched doorway; to the left is a single similar blocked doorway with a single remaining stylised foliate carved capital. Over to the right is a small rectangular squint from the vestry.

Interior: Vestry

The north wall off the north aisle has a doorway to the 14th-century vestry. The ground floor has a vaulted roof with a single central shield set into a quatrefoil in turn set into a roundel, the eight radiating ribs being hollow chamfered. A four-centred arch leads to the spiral staircase.

Interior: Liturgical Furnishings

The south chancel aisle has a 14th-century trefoil-arched piscina and to the right of the east window a large rectangular niche. To the right of the south door and continuing to the west wall of the south aisle is a continuous sill band, with a corresponding band to the north aisle. The south doorway has a large rectangular hood mould with human head label stops. The north doorway has a similar damaged hood mould. The west window of the nave has a sill band.

The north-east nave has a small pointed arched rood loft doorway and a single small quatrefoil light over. There is a 19th-century reredos and tripartite sedilia.

Interior: Furnishings and Fittings

The church contains a 12th-century ashlar font with tapering octagonal bowl, a 19th-century pulpit, and a fine 15th-century brass lectern in the form of an eagle. Other fittings include a 17th-century oak table, a 17th-century parish chest, and a late 17th-century reredos now used as a screen in the north aisle, panelled with fluted Corinthian pilasters and some decorative carving. The north aisle has former turned 18th-century communion rails and an oak poor box dated 1712.

Interior: Roofs

The nave roof has been restored. The chancel has a hammer-beamed roof restored in 1866 with moulded and carved beams supported on carved angels. The south aisle has some moulded roof beams. The north aisle has chamfered roof beams.

Interior: Memorials

The east wall of the south aisle has a memorial to Mary Scrope (died 1793), the inscription surmounted by a decorative carved panel and urn. The south wall has a cinquefoil-arched tomb recess, the spandrels decorated with dragons. There are two early 19th-century memorials and a 17th-century ashlar memorial with illegible inscription, decorated with a carved figure, skeleton, bell and crossed swords. The floor has evidence of a former 15th-century brass figure.

The north aisle has four 18th-century memorials. That to Amy Delamore (died 1735) is decorated with fluted pilasters and a pediment; another is decorated with cherubs and a broken pediment. There is a further memorial in the clerestory. Several 17th and 18th-century floor slabs survive. Two late 19th-century boards topped with pediments detail 'Long Sutton Charity Lands'.

A number of windows contain some 15th-century coloured glass.