Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building located on Queen's Street in Halford. It dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries and underwent significant restoration in 1862 and 1883. The church is constructed from regular coursed ironstone rubble and features a steeply pitched tile roof with stone coped gables and ironstone quoins.

The layout includes a nave, chancel, south aisle, and a south-west tower. The chancel has renewed 2-light lancet windows on both the north and south sides, along with a renewed 3-light east window that includes cusped heads and quatrefoils. The nave features an unusual 3-light lancet window made of sandstone, with repairs in limestone, and a 19th-century hood mould with a label stop. There is also a small Romanesque window with renewed stonework and a decorated west window with 3 lights, cusped heads, and a hood mould.

The north doorway is Romanesque, with a tympanum that displays one of the earliest known examples of a half-length figure. It has a gabled porch with round-headed entrances. The south aisle contains a badly weathered Romanesque south doorway with a 20th-century plank door, alongside a 3-light decorated window with a hood mould and label stops on the right, and a similar east window.

The south-west tower consists of three stages, featuring lancets on the ground and first floors, and pairs of lancets at the bell-stage, topped with an embattled parapet and finials. Inside, there is a Romanesque chancel arch with a 12th-century niche to the right. The chancel has a 19th-century roof supported by foliated corbels and a squint in the west wall. The south arcade has been renewed with three bays, and there is a 14th-century octagonal stone font with a carved oak cover.

Monuments in the chancel commemorate Francis, wife of George Granger, who died in April 1674, and Mary and Anthony Apperley, who died in 1783 and 1799 respectively. A marble wall tablet in the nave honors Mary Plumb, who died in 1763. The Romanesque north doorway is noted as the finest in the county.