Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a parish church dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, with later alterations. It is built of sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings and stone slate roofs. The building comprises a four-bay aisled nave, a two-bay chancel with a north vestry, a west tower and a south porch.

The west tower is embattled with a high battered plinth and three stages, with the upper two stages separated by moulded strings. Each of the three faces of the two lower stages contains a central loop. The north face has a clock face, probably from the early 20th century, positioned above the upper loop. The top stage has restored two-light openings on each side, with ogee heads to each light and labels with head stops. The moulded string below the parapet features a diagonal waterspout at each corner. Above the upper loop on the west side is a single medieval head, and a weathercock stands at the centre of the roof.

On the north elevation of the nave is a clerestory containing three opposed two-light traceried windows. The outer windows have cinquefoil-headed lights while the centre window has trefoiled ogeed lights, all with quatrefoils in the tracery. The north aisle has a traceried west window with two flat trefoil-headed lights and a trefoil above. The north elevation of the north aisle features a gable on the left-hand side containing a large four-light traceried window with trefoiled heads to each light and two rows of quatrefoils in reticulated tracery above. To the right are a pair of two-light windows, each with trefoiled and ogee-headed lights, with the left one having a trefoil above. The north doorway between these windows has a pointed segmental head and a nail-studded oak door. Three weathered buttresses are evenly spaced along the wall, with diagonal buttresses at the north-west and north-east corners. Above the west end of the aisle is a 19th-century octagonal chimney shaft. The two-light window at the east end of the aisle has a two-centred head with two trefoiled ogee lights and a quatrefoil above. Between this window and the chancel stands a newel turret for the former rood loft.

The chancel's north side has a pair of trefoiled lights. The vestry features a gable containing a pair of lancets and a 19th-century doorway with a shouldered lintel, whilst the east return of the vestry has a square-headed two-light mullioned window. The restored east window has four trefoil-headed lights with quatrefoils in the tracery. The south side of the chancel has two weathered buttresses and two restored windows, each with two trefoiled lights and a square head, with a priest's doorway between them featuring a double-chamfered two-centred arch and label.

The south elevation of the nave is similar to the north elevation but includes a south porch with a two-centred chamfered outer arch and a single-frame collar roof. The south doorway has an arch matching that of the outer porch arch, with a nail-studded oak door.

The interior contains a 14th-century open wagon chancel roof with crested wall plates. The nave roof is of 16th-century date with trusses forming six and a half bays, angle struts to ties, and slopes divided into panels. The two eastern bays of the roof are boarded and decorated with large painted rosettes. The chancel has an ogee-headed piscina on the south wall, with sedilia positioned in the cill of the south-east window. A restored tomb recess in the north wall has crockets. The doorway to the vestry has a shouldered head.

The east window contains 19th-century stained glass depicting saints. The south-east window has late 19th-century stained glass showing the Annunciation and Nativity. Later 19th-century oak and brass communion rails are present. An early 20th-century organ with an oak case, inscribed "WG VOWLES / BRISTOL", is installed in the chancel. A wall monument on the south side commemorates Henry Mason, who died in 1794, in black and grey marble. A brass plaque dates to 1767 for Henry Allen. The north wall bears a monument for Thomas Carwardin, who died in 1746, featuring three cherubs surrounding the inscription.

A late 19th-century brass candelabrum in the form of a wheel with eight candlesticks hangs from the middle of the roof. A late 19th or early 20th-century chancel screen incorporates earlier elements. The vestry has a two-bay wagon roof with curved braces and trefoil-headed wind braces, possibly dating to the 14th century. The chancel arch is of 14th-century date with a two-centred head and two orders, with a label featuring head stops and a carved head at the apex of the outer order. Corbel heads support the inner arch. A high-set doorway on the north side leads to the former rood loft and has a triangular head. The nave arcade features octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases and two-centred double-chamfered arches. A doorway to stairs to the former rood loft from the north aisle has a flat cinquefoiled head. A low two-centred tower arch is filled with 17th-century panelling comprising four turned balusters and two flat barleysugar balusters, respectively to the right and left of an illeted door. Above the tower arch is a blocked segmental opening.

The font is a 19th-century octagonal piece with two pairs of ogee-headed panels to each face of the bowl. A contemporary oak pulpit has trefoiled panels. The eastern pews have desks with 17th-century panelling incorporating grotesques and arch motifs. Two candelabra similar to that in the chancel are present. Two matching wall monuments flank the tower arch, commemorating Thomas and William Foley, who died in 1822 and 1828 respectively, each topped with a single urn to the cornice. A wall memorial plaque records the 17 men of the parish who died between 1914 and 1919, and six who died between 1939 and 1945.