Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a substantial parish church with a long and complex building history spanning from around 1140 to 1818. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar and rubble, with some areas of render and red brick patching. The roofs are lead-covered with stone coped gables and cross finials. The church comprises a nave with north and south aisles, north and south porches, clerestory, north transept, south-east tower, and chancel.

West Front and Entrance

The west front dates from around 1190 and is clasped between the north and south aisles, with a fragmentary plinth at its base. The doorway projects slightly and is topped by a gable. It has a pointed, richly moulded head with a hood mould and four shafts on each side, all with stiff leaf capitals. The doorway is flanked by single blind pointed openings with roll moulded heads, hood moulds, and slender supporting shafts with stiff leaf capitals. Pilaster buttresses stand beyond these openings. Each aisle end has a single window, both heavily restored in the 17th century—the north window has an almost semi-circular head, while the south is pointed, both with plain mullions. Above the doorway is a large 14th-century window with a pointed head, hood mould, and head label stops, though it is partially blocked. A smaller pointed 17th-century window with five lights and a transom has been inserted within it.

North Aisle and Porch

The north aisle features a plinth, string course, sill bands, and regularly placed two-stage buttresses. To the right is a blocked window with an almost segmental head, hood mould, and head label stops. To the left is a shallow pointed early 14th-century window with three cusped ogee-headed lights, tracery, and a fragmentary hood mould. Beyond this is a shallow gabled porch with a pointed doorway having a continuous double-chamfered surround and a plank door. To the left of the porch are three shallow pointed windows, all with 17th-century mullions inserted and hood moulds. A parapet runs above.

North Transept

The transept has three-stage diagonal buttresses and a large pointed 14th-century five-light north window with 17th-century mullions and sub-panel tracery above. The east side has a large rectangular 17th-century six-light mullioned window. To the left is a partially blocked pointed 14th-century window with 17th-century mullions inserted and a double-chamfered surround.

Clerestory and Nave

The clerestory dates from around 1150 and features 22 blind semi-circular headed arches with continuous hood moulds and flanking shafts with cushion or scalloped capitals. The third, sixth, tenth, thirteenth, sixteenth, and nineteenth bays from the west have been opened up into windows. A small square window to the left has been inserted into a pointed opening. A gargoyle stands to the right. The east gable end of the nave has a semi-circular headed window from around 1150 with a roll moulded head, flanking shafts with cushion capitals, and a hood mould.

Chancel

The chancel was restored in 1818. It has a pair of three-stage buttresses flanking a 17th-century three-light rectangular window, with suggestions of a blocked former arcade. The east end has a plinth, moulded string course, and sill band beneath a large 14th-century pointed window with a deeply moulded surround, hood mould with small head label stops, and four lights with 17th-century intersecting tracery, blocked beneath the transom. The south side of the chancel has a 17th-century three-light rectangular window flanked by three-stage buttresses.

South Aisle

The west end of the south aisle has a sill band running beneath a pointed window from around 1280 with three pointed lights and sub-Y tracery. A parapet stands above. The south aisle has three 19th-century triangular-headed windows, each with three cusped ogee-headed lights, tracery, and hood mould. Two similar windows are beyond the gabled 16th-century porch to the left, which has a semi-circular headed doorway with a continuously double-chamfered surround. The porch interior has flanking stone benches, a tunnel vault, and a pointed doorway from around 1190 with a richly roll moulded head with hood mould, paired shafts (one missing to the right), all with stiff leaf capitals, and 17th-century double plank doors.

South Clerestory

The clerestory on the south side is slightly later than that on the north and has seven large 17th-century windows inserted into the blind arcade of 21 bays. The windows are all pointed with two mullions and hood moulds. The blind arcade arches are all pointed, and the eleven westward arches retain their moulded capitals.

Bell Tower

The four-stage bell tower is attached to the south side and dates from around 1190. It has four-stage angle buttresses, with the upper stages being pilasters with nook shafts. The south-west buttress contains a polygonal stair turret with lancets, one of which is chevroned. The tower has a moulded plinth. A plain east doorway has a shallow pointed head and double plank doors. It is flanked by a blind arcade which also runs above, consisting of five pointed chevroned arches supported on moulded capitals with shafts and moulded bases.

The south side of the bell tower has a blind arcade with four pointed chevroned arches, hood moulds, label stops, five slender shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The second archway from the east contains a small round-headed lancet. The west side has a similar arcade with beaded capitals and only one shaft intact.

The second stage on the east side has a trefoiled niche with an ornate gablet above the doorway, which breaks through a blind arcade of three pointed arches plus two outer half arches. The south side second stage has a blind arcade of three pointed arches with slender shafts, moulded capitals, and bases, with the central arch containing a lancet. The west side has a similar arcade and lancet, though only one shaft survives.

The east side third stage has a blind arcade similar to that of the stage below, except that the central arch contains a doorway with a plank door and a clock set above. The south and west sides have similar arcades and doorways. The east side shows the gabled outline of a former transept roof.

Bell openings on all four sides each have a pair of pointed heads richly roll moulded and with several slender shafts with moulded capitals, bands of chip-star, shaft rings, and 14th-century tracery. A moulded string course and eaves run around the tower, the latter with small sculptured motifs and several projecting gargoyles. Battlements crown the tower with small corner pinnacles with ball finials.

Interior Features

Nave Arcades

The interior of the west doorway has a continuous roll moulded surround, hood mould, and label stops. The nave has seven-bay north and south arcades. The three bays to the west date from around 1185; the four bays to the east from around 1140. The eastern bays have semi-circular arches with a half roll and two slight chamfers. The north-east respond has a cluster of three shafts with scalloped capitals. The semi-circular south-east respond has fish-scale scalloping.

The first complete piers to the north-west and south-west each have a rectangular plan with a cluster of three large rounded shafts to each side. The next pair of piers to the west are squat and round, and the pair beyond are squat and octagonal. All these piers have scalloped capitals. The three later bays to the west have quatrefoil piers, triple western responds, and early stiff leaf capitals or trumpet scallops. The spandrels of the four bays to the east contain blind oculi; the spandrels of the two south-west bays contain blind quatrefoils.

The north clerestory windows have nook shafts with cushion capitals and chamfered heads with hood moulds.

Side Aisles and Transept

The south aisle has an ogee piscina with a cusped bowl. The north aisle leads into the north transept through a broad 14th-century almost semi-circular archway with hood mould and head label stops. The south aisle leads into the vestry through a 12th-century double-chamfered semi-circular headed archway with plain moulded capitals. A blocked south archway from around 1190 leads off the screened-off vestry into the tower, with keeled responds and an 18th-century panelled door inserted.

Chancel Arch and Stair Turret

The semi-circular headed chancel arch dates from around 1140 and has an inner roll moulded order, with chevroned, double fish-scale, and diamond outer orders, supported on scalloped corbels and slender outer shafts with scalloped capitals. To the south is a rectangular stair turret, originally giving access to a rood screen no longer extant, with an ogee-headed continuously chamfered doorway, a small cusped ogee-headed light above, and another plain door above that.

The north wall of the chancel has two bays of blocked early 13th-century arcade with pointed double-chamfered heads and moulded capitals.

Roofs

The nave has a 15th-century hammer beam roof with delicate arched and traceried braces. The aisles have 15th-century roofs.

Furnishings and Fittings

The early 18th-century reredos is bolection moulded and panelled, carved with a flagon, chalice, and dish of rolls. The 19th-century communion rail re-uses an 18th-century handrail. The 17th-century six-sided pulpit has a curving flight of five steps, fretworked arches and pilasters with flower heads and dentillated bands, and a book rest.

The font is mid-12th century, partially re-cut in the 17th century. Three rectangular steps with an extra step for the priest to the west lead up to the font, which is supported on four free-standing columns with spiral decoration and a central larger plain shaft. The octagonal bowl is re-cut with flutings.

Monuments and Memorials

Various stone fragments include two Anglo-Saxon inscribed stones, two stone coffins and two coffin lids (one 14th century with an ornate foliate cross inscribed), a crocket capital set into the south wall, a fragment of rib vault or respond, and other miscellaneous carved stones including part of an octagonal shaft.

A hatchment dated 1773 is inscribed "L. Bullard Pinxit."

The large canopied tomb commemorates Sir Anthony and Elizabeth Irby (Sir Anthony died 1623). It has ten composite columns on tall pedestals supporting an inscribed entablature and flattened ogee canopy crowned by a large cartouche with a coat of arms. Three sons and two daughters kneel between the columns. The recumbent effigies of Sir Anthony and his wife show a boar at his feet and a griffon at hers; he wears black and gold armour and she has a ruff and blue robes. The whole monument is painted and gilded, as is the wrought iron railing that runs round it with regularly placed fleur-de-lys terminations.

Other monuments include an ashlar cartouche with a marble scrolled plaque to Benjamin Grant (died 1734), and an ashlar and gilt monument to Benjamin Grant (died 1716) with cherubs, palms, skulls, and festoons. Gravestones include one to John Ailjiup (died 1755).