Church Of St Mary

The church of St. Mary is a parish church largely dating to the 14th century, with a 15th-century chancel and subsequent alterations. It was restored in the 19th century. The west tower is of the 14th century and built of rubble stone with Barnack ashlar to the west wall and quoins. It has four stages built on a splayed plinth with angle buttressing of four stages, and a later embattled brick parapet. The gable end of the original nave roof is visible in the east wall. A 14th-century west doorway has hollow and roll moulding to a two-centred arch. The west window has three trefoil lights with vertical tracery within a two-centred arch. The bell stage has two trefoil openings with quatrefoil heads within a two-centred arch.

The nave is of rubble stone, rendered, with a low-pitched slate roof and a bell cote to the east gable end. A 15th-century clerestory features five windows, each with three cinquefoil lights in a four-centred head. The south aisle, repaired in the 18th century, has four 15th-century windows, each with three cinquefoil lights in square heads. The south porch was restored and is constructed of stone, rendered, with two-stage diagonal buttressing and a parapetted gable roof of slate. The outer archway is two-centred with two chamfered orders; the inner is carried on attached shafts with moulded capitals. The inner archway has a two-centred arch of two continuous chamfered orders. A 14th-century holy water stoup is present.

The chancel is of rubble stone with dressed stone to window and door openings, and a steeply pitched slate roof. The east window is 15th-century, with five cinquefoil lights and vertical tracery in a four-centred arch. The north wall was restored in the 19th century.

Inside, the tower arch is 15th-century, two-centred with two wave moulded orders, the inner order carried on responds with half-octagonal columns and embattled capitals. The north and south arcades consist of five bays with two-centred arches of two chamfered orders on octagonal columns, with octagonal capitals and bases on square plinths. The chancel arch is similar to the nave arcades, with a window above of three cinquefoil lights in a four-centred head. The east window’s glazing is a memorial to those who died in the First World War. Two tomb slabs are in the nave, one to Thomas Williamson (1836), and another to his wife Jane (1837), of the Manor House, Station Road, Wisbech St. Mary. The church contains furniture, statuary fragments, and glazing principally continental, and from the 17th and 18th centuries.