Parish Church Of St Mary

The Parish Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building located in Fen Drayton. The church has origins dating back to the late 13th century, with the west wall of the nave and lower parts of the chancel and possibly the lower stage of the tower from this period. The tower was rebuilt around 1330, while the chancel, nave, and south aisle were constructed in the 15th century. The roofs were replaced during restoration work in 1855. The church is built from Barnack limestone and limestone and pebble rubble, with slate roofs.

The south elevation features a tower with three stages, diagonal buttresses, a plain parapet with centrally placed gargoyles, and a broached octagonal spire that has small trefoiled lights on its cardinal faces. Below the belfry window, which has two lights with foiled Y-tracery, is a single trefoiled light. The clerestory has a plain parapet and gable, with four two-cinquefoil light windows in square heads. The south doorway is adorned with a two-centred moulded arch, and there is a 20th-century south porch. The chancel includes two three-cinquefoil light windows, each with panelled tracery in four-centred arches, and a 'low-side' window that is partly blocked. The south doorway features a two-centred arch with chamfered orders, and there are two early 13th-century buttresses on the west wall showing markings of the original aisle.

Inside, the church has a south nave arcade of four bays with two-centred arches made of two chamfered orders, supported by octagonal piers with moulded caps and bases. The chancel arch is similar in style. A deeply splayed loop window is present in the north wall of the chancel. The tower doorway has a two-centred arch with a label. The chancel contains sedilia and a piscina, while additional piscnae are found in the north wall of the nave and the south aisle. The font is a plain octagonal bowl set on modern columns. There are 15th-century glass fragments in several windows, along with memorial glass in the chancel from 1896 and 1901 by E.R. Soffling of London. A brass on the north wall of the chancel features a black marble slab with a man and woman kneeling on either side of a cross, accompanied by inscriptions. The church also contains 18th-century boxed pews that are used as choir stalls.