Parish Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin

A parish church of mixed dates spanning the 13th to 19th centuries, built of flint rubble with some areas plastered, limestone dressings to the west tower, and clay peg tile roofs with gables. The church comprises a west tower, nave, narrower chancel, and south porch.

The nave features a moulded external string course below the window cills. On the north wall are two windows: the eastern is 16th-century, set within the blocking of an archway, with four lights of moulded and plastered brick; the western is 14th-century with three cinquefoiled and traceried lights. Further west is a blocked 14th-century north doorway with jambs and arch of two moulded orders. The south wall contains two 14th-century windows with three cinquefoiled lights and intersecting tracery, and a south doorway similar to the north doorway, fitted with an old door of rebated boards and iron straps.

The north wall of the nave holds a substantial monument said to commemorate Sir John Boutetort (died 1324 or 1325) and his wife Maude. This takes the form of an arched recess serving as both a canopy for an altar tomb and the entrance to a former chantry chapel. The arch is moulded and two-centred, cinquefoiled, sub-cusped and carved with foliage and flowers; the points of the main cusps are carved with grotesques, and four shields of arms occupy the main spandrels. The arch features a crocketed and moulded label with a carved finial, and moulded responds carved with foliage. It is flanked by square panelled buttresses with panelled, gabled and crocketed pinnacles, numerous small shields adorning the buttresses. At the back of the arch are carved springers of the former vaulted roof with semi-circular vaulting shafts and moulded capitals.

The chancel is fundamentally 13th-century but has undergone substantial rebuilding. The east window is 19th-century. The north wall contains two windows: the eastern with one round-headed light, and the western a 13th-century lancet whose cill has been removed to form a modern doorway. The south wall has two windows, the eastern a 13th-century lancet and the western 19th-century, with remains of a lancet or doorway below. The chancel arch is moulded and 19th-century.

The west tower is 15th-century, comprising three stages with a moulded plinth and embattled parapet, both enriched with flint and stone chequerwork. The plinths of the two western buttresses display quatrefoiled panels with a plain shield. The north-east stair tower has a 16th-century brick top surmounted by a 19th-century cupola and an 18th-century wrought iron weather vane. The tower arch is two-centred with three chamfered orders and semi-octagonal shafts with moulded capitals. On the east face of the wall is a square cusped panel with an embattled cornice enclosing a shield. The north wall contains a doorway with chamfered jambs. The west window is restored, with three cinquefoiled ogee lights, a transom and tracery in a four-centred head. The second stage has windows in the north, south and west walls, each of one trefoiled light. Below the west wall window are three square panels in a moulded frame, two being cusped and enclosing blank shields. The bell chamber has windows in each wall, each with two cinquefoils within a four-centred head.

The south porch dates to the 15th century and has low plastered brick plinths with timber framing above. The timber framing includes restored diamond mullions in the flank and a cross-quadrant crown post with hollow chamfers and arch bracing to the tie beams. The front tie beam is moulded and the bargeboards are foiled.

The font has a tapering band decorated with bands of interlace ornament, though much of its upper part has been lost; the base is 19th-century. Traces of wall paintings survive on the north and south walls of the nave, including a 'wheel of fortune' and a figure of St Sebastian. A monument in the chancel commemorates Sir John Raymond (died 1720), featuring pilasters and cherubs, created by Robert Taylor Senior.

The church is graded I for its landscape, architectural and historic value.