Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

Parish church with a complex build sequence spanning the 14th to 20th centuries. The chancel dates from the 14th century, the nave and aisles from the mid-15th century, the west tower from the early 15th century, and the chancel chapels and south porch from the late 15th century. The building is constructed of flint with ashlar dressings and has lead roofs.

The west tower, begun in 1415, rises in three stages with ashlar facing to the west side. The base course features crosses set within rectangular panels. The arched and moulded west doorway is set within a square surround with shields in quatrefoils in the spandrels. An embattled string course runs below a three-light pane-tracery west window. Stepped angle buttresses rise to corner pinnacles at the crenellated parapet, with a taller, broader pinnacle at the south-east corner that serves the stair turret. Two-light belfry windows pierce the upper stage.

The south aisle contains three three-light Perpendicular windows with pane-tracery and a plain parapet. The south porch, dating from 1490 to 1520, has an arched and moulded entrance (restored in the 19th century) flanked on either side by a cinquefoiled niche, each now containing a late 20th-century figure. Angle buttresses support the structure, and a crenellated parapet runs across the front and returns. Two two-light side windows occupy each side. The south door dates to around 1260 and is constructed of oak with four vertical planks decorated with scrolled ironwork and a hoodmould on head stops.

The north aisle contains three three-light Perpendicular windows matching the south aisle, together with an arched and moulded north doorway. A parapet runs above. A parapeted clerestory on both north and south sides, added between 1490 and 1520, contains four three-light pane-tracery windows.

The chancel features crenellated chapels on the north and south sides, both dating from 1490 to 1520. The south chapel has two three-light Perpendicular windows to the south and one to the east, the latter beneath a segmental arch; angle buttresses flank the corners. The north chapel has one segmental and one arched three-light window. An arched priest's doorway sits beneath the west window, and a small arched lancet opens toward the east end. The chancel's main east window is of five lights with reticulated tracery. Two two-light chancel clerestory windows pierce the north and south walls. A very tall triple-transomed window with arched lights occupies the south chancel, rebuilt in 1913. Before this window stand mid-18th-century square-section railings with scrolled top rails and elaborated stiles. A flint and brick rood stair turret to the north has three brick windows above a string course, the mullions featuring sunk quadrant mouldings.

Internally, the nave contains a four-bay arcade with piers displaying four hollows and four shafts with rounded capitals, supporting double wave-moulded arches. The nave roof, dating from around 1520, features a moulded ridge piece, purlin and principals with bosses at main intersections and solid arched braces to wall posts with carving. The aisle roofs, from the mid-15th century, employ similar construction with multiple roll-moulded timbers.

The chancel contains two-bay chapels on the north and south sides, with piers from around 1490 displaying continuous double-wave mouldings that run into the four-centred arches without capitals. An organ of 1905 by Norman & Beard occupies the arch on the south side.

The rood screen was designed by Sir Ninian Comper in 1910, with the centre part erected that year: it comprises four bays either side of a wider central opening, all with elaborate tracery heads. The dado panels feature blind tracery, and ribbed coving runs along the west side with a pierced parapet. Rood figures were installed in 1950. Additional side screens were erected in 1955, modified from a Comper design, each featuring two and one bays either side of a four-centred central opening. Cusping decorates both the tracery heads and dado panels, with ribbed west coving and a tall pierced parapet.

Other furnishings include an octagonal Perpendicular font with tracery decoration and a gilded reredos from around 1920 featuring five carved saints flanking a central carved Christ in Majesty. A monument to Grisell Moore, who died in 1624, stands in the north chancel chapel. It is constructed of alabaster and marble and shows the figure kneeling before a prayer desk within an architectural frame consisting of two Corinthian columns supporting an open pediment, with an achievement above.