Church Of St Mary

Church of St. Mary

Parish church with origins in the 13th century but mainly dating from the early 14th century. Restored in 1840. Built of Barnack stone ashlar, part rendered. The church comprises a west tower, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, and chancel.

The west tower is early 14th-century, of three stages, set on a double splayed plinth with main cornice and boss enrichments. It has three-stage angle buttresses and a newel staircase in the south-east corner. The west doorway and west window are, however, 15th-century works. The doorway is set in a four-centred arch flanked by two vacant niches with ogee heads between two continuous orders. Above the door is a relief of Our Lord in Glory flanked by two niches. Early 14th-century window openings light the second and third stages. The broach spire is covered with Barnack ashlar and rises in three stages, each with a gabled lucarne. The original gable of the steeply pitched nave roof is visible on each side of the tower.

The nave is early 14th-century in origin but was reroofed in the 15th century with an embattled parapet. Each side of the clerestory has six two-light windows. The south aisle is early 14th-century, embattled with large grotesque gargoyles and a frieze of ball flower ornament to the main cornice. It contains three early 14th-century windows with reticulated tracery: two of three lights in segmental arches and one of four lights in a pointed arch. All have drip moulds with mask stops.

The south porch is contemporary with the south aisle, with the gargoyles and ball flower frieze carried round from the aisle. It has an embattled parapet with corner turrets and pinnacles. Buttresses of grouped keeled shafts on a high base flank the two-centred outer arch, which has three hollow and roll-moulded orders. The inner arch has similar moulding. The porch is in two bays with two-light early 14th-century openings to each, their heads featuring pierced tracery. The roof is 15th-century.

The chancel was much restored in 1840 and has 15th-century fenestration, though the north and south doorways with Caernarvon heads must date to the 13th or 14th century. A low side window in the south wall has a similar Caernarvon head.

Interior: The nave arcade is 15th-century, comprising six bays with two-centred hollow-chamfered arches on half-octagonal columns with hollow mouldings to the sides. Each shaft is embattled and topped with a capital with mask enrichment and high moulded base. The north and south aisles retain blind arcading of early 14th-century date on their walls.

The roof is a crown-post roof in six bays, 15th-century and restored. It features hollow and roll-moulded principals and tie beams, with jackposts on stone niches containing figures supported on corbels, some mutilated.

The chancel arch has 13th-century origins, set in a two-centred form with one hollow and one chamfered order. The piscina has a similar Caernarvon head. A 15th-century screen separates the chancel from the nave, with vertical tracery to the upper bays and vaulted coving preserved on each side.

The stalls in the chancel may originate from Ramsey Abbey and feature misericords. The pulpit is early 17th-century with original vaulted tester and enriched ogee canopy. It is seven-sided with arcaded panels on an original stem, possibly earlier. The font is 15th-century, with an octagonal bowl and stem enriched with cusping and blank shields of arms. Two 17th-century chests survive: one in the nave, part restored but retaining original iron fittings, and another in the tower.