Church of St Thomas à Becket

The Church of St Thomas à Becket in Ramsey began as a late 12th-century guest house or infirmary for Ramsey Abbey and was converted to a church during the 13th century. The building has undergone alterations in the 15th, 17th, 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed from Barnack stone and coursed limestone rubble.

The church comprises a west tower leading to an aisled nave and chancel. The north aisle extends the full length of the building, while the south aisle extends only along the nave.

The north and south elevations are lined with aisles lit by 15th-century three-light windows with vertical tracery in four-centred heads with labels. Both aisles are topped by embattled parapets and supported by buttresses with offsets. The south wall of the chancel is lit by an early 14th-century window of two pointed lights under a round head, above the remains of vaulting shafts from the 12th-century aisle roof. The chancel also features a 16th or 17th-century doorway with a four-centred arch under a square head, while the south door dates to the 15th century with a four-centred arch. The 15th or 16th-century north doorway has stop-moulded jambs and a four-centred arch under a square head with blank shields in the spandrels and a moulded label. The aisles sit beneath a clerestorey with ranges of seven 15th-century two-light windows on each side, featuring cinquefoil tracery in four-centred heads with labels. The east elevation is lit by three round-headed windows, each flanked by pilaster buttresses, with a vesica-shaped window above the centre bay and one sealed round-headed window in the gable end. The ends of the aisles are lit by three-light windows with vertical tracery in four-centred heads with labels.

The west tower occupies the centre of the west elevation and rises through four stages with an embattled parapet, crocketed pinnacles at the corners and angle buttresses with five offsets. The tower's centre contains a late 12th-century doorway with a round-headed arch of four orders, three of which are moulded, supported by free shafts on moulded bases with moulded bands, abaci and decorated capitals. Above the doorway is a sunken rectangular panel with a moulded frame inscribed "TAKE HEED, WATCH / AND PRAY FOR YE / KNOW NOT WHEN / THE TIME IS / S. MAR. 13.33". Above this is a round, raised panel, followed by a two-light window under a four-centred arch. The bell chamber contains one two-light window in each wall formed from reused stone. The tower is flanked by the two aisles, each containing a three-light window with vertical tracery under a four-centred arch.

Internally, the nave comprises seven bays, with the westernmost bay diminished by the tower. The arcades are formed from two-centred arches of two plain orders with chamfered labels. The arcade piers each have a moulded base and rebated plinth and are paired. From east to west, the piers consist of: four grouped keeled shafts; eight grouped round shafts; round piers; square piers with four attached and keeled shafts; octagonal piers; and eight grouped and keeled shafts. The capitals on the north arcade from east to west are: waterleaf with square rebated abacus; leaf with grooved round abacus; beaded scallop and leaf with square rebated abacus; leaves with volutes and grooved round abacus; scalloped with paired volutes and square rebated abacus; and leaves with volutes and grooved round abacus. The south arcade capitals from east to west are: leaves with volutes and square rebated abacus; leaf ornament with grooved round abacus; leaves with volutes and square rebated abacus; waterleaf and round grooved abacus; scalloped with square rebated abacus; and waterleaf with round grooved abacus. A pair of blocked openings above the second pair of piers from the east marks the entrance to the former rood loft. The roof comprises a series of queen post trusses supported by arch braces springing from carved corbels, with ornamental bracing forming two-centred arches between the queen posts and rafters and between the queen posts and ridge. Traces of 13th to 14th-century painting remain at the eastern end of the north arcade.

The chancel arch is two-centred with two plain orders and a moulded label with scrolled stop on keeled shafts with scalloped capitals having grooved and chamfered abaci. The shafts form one group with the responds of the nave arcade. The chancel is covered by a quadripartite vault formed of unmoulded ribs of square section springing from attached shafts with cushion capitals. The east windows have continuous roll mouldings. The piscinae date to the 13th century and sit under two-centred arches. The canopies of the adjacent sedilia have been removed, leaving the seats and intervening piers. A large Gothic monument to William Henry Fellowes (died 1837) stands on the north wall of the chancel, with a smaller plaque to Emma Fellowes (died 1862) on the south wall. A garlanded cartouche in the south aisle commemorates the church's restoration by Edward Fellowes in 1843-4.

The pews are 19th-century, numbered with poppy head finials. The 15th-century lectern is oak, comprising a square post with a moulded and embattled capital and four traceried buttresses. The 12th to 13th-century font is dark grey marble, hexagonal with a shaped lower edge and six angle shafts around a central 19th-century shaft. Remains of vaulting shafts from the late 12th-century aisle roof survive in the vestry. Much of the glass is early 20th-century, by Morris and Company.

The east end of the south aisle has been converted to a chapel commemorating the safe return of Ailwyn Fellowes, 3rd Baron De Ramsey from the Second World War. The chapel has no permanent boundary markers but is identified by a plaque inscribed "THIS CHAPEL IS THE GIFT OF / LADY DE RAMSEY, IN THANKSGIVING TO / ALMIGHTY GOD FOR THE SAFE RETURN / OF HER HUSBAND LORD DE RAMSEY FROM / A JAPANESE PRISONER OF WAR CAMP 1945 / 8 AUGUST 1956".