Parish Church Of St Mary

The parish church of St Mary is a complex building dating primarily to the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with significant restoration in the 18th and 19th centuries. The chancel is from the 13th century, followed by a 14th-century tower with late 15th-century buttresses, a mid-15th-century nave, a south aisle and Lady Chapel (mid-15th century), and a later 15th-century north aisle, porch, and clerestorey. The Lady Chapel, with a roof restored in 1713 (marked by a dated tie beam), was formerly used as a school and is now a vestry. In the 18th century, when the church served as a memorial chapel for the Jeaffreson family, the two-light traceried window, low-side window, and priest's door in the north wall of the chancel were blocked, as was the doorway to the south porch. The church underwent restoration in 1728, 1884-90, with roof repairs in 1899, the tower in 1928 and 1939, and further work in 1977.

The church is constructed of flint and rubblestone, originally plastered, with windows and doorways of clunch, some restored with Ketton limestone. Limestone bands highlight the plinth, buttresses, quoins, and parapet copings. A band of flint flush work is visible on the north aisle. The roofs are covered in lead and plain tiles.

The north elevation features a three-stage tower with an embattled parapet and four-stage angle buttresses that block aisle windows. The clerestorey has four two-cinquefoil-light windows set within four-centred arches. The gabled porch has two-centred moulded arches to the entrance and a north door with defaced head stops; open traceried windows are set into its side walls. Chancel openings are now sealed. The aisle windows are of three-cinquefoil-lights within four-centred arches.

Inside, the nave has four bays, characterized by arcades of moulded two-centred arches supported by piers with quatrefoil plans, hollow mouldings, and moulded capitals. Similar arches define the Lady Chapel and chancel. The chancel contains a double piscina with foiled drains, and there are two 15th-century piscinae in each aisle, alongside a stoop by the north door. The chancel roof is plastered; the south aisle and Lady Chapel roofs feature hollow chamfered and moulded principal rafters supported on carved stone corbels with jack legs and arch braces. The nave roof has arched braces with foiled spandrels, tie beams with squat braced king posts, a moulded cornice, and stop-chamfered principal rafters. The north aisle has a pent roof with similar details. A 15th-century font, painted in the 17th century with the shield of James I, is made of clunch with foiled panels, a panelled pedestal, and a moulded plinth. Monuments to the Jeaffreson family are noteworthy, including two by Westmacott. Hatchments are displayed in the tower, and brass indents are in the chapel. Memorial stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Barne, London, is found in the east window (dated 1889). Pink marble steps lead to the altar, and the pulpit dates from 1903.