Parish Church Of St Mary

The Parish Church of St Mary is a Grade I listed building located on Dedham High Street. This church features a Perpendicular style and includes a west tower made of squared flush flints with freestone quoins and four strings at the floor levels. The tower has octagonal angle buttresses and an embattled parapet with pinnacles, while the top stage is adorned with three-light Perpendicular windows. The ground storey is open from north to south and has a stone segmental vault.

The nave is flanked by north and south aisles, with the north aisle featuring a leaded roof and eaves, and both aisles having crenellated parapets. The north aisle has four Perpendicular windows on its north elevation, along with eleven clerestory windows above. The north porch is angle buttressed, embattled, and two storeys high. The chancel is also embattled and rendered, with three windows on the north side. The south porch is two storeys and rendered, while the south aisle has 17th-century red brick buttresses.

The original north door leaf is cut for a fixed oak tympanum, although the figure sculptures are defaced. Inside, the squared-ledged door has the original lock-stock. The nave arcades consist of six bays, with piers that are four rounds with intervening hollows. The roof features camber-beams with ridge and purlins, and crenellated wall-plates above the original structure, along with wall-pieces that reach the clear storey height. The roofs of the south aisle are contemporary with the chancel roof, which is also original. The window tracery is trefoiled, as is the flush work plinth that runs around the base of the church.