Parish Church Of St Mary

Parish Church of St. Mary

This parish church consists of a chancel and nave of early 12th-century date, with the nave extended in the 13th century. A 15th-century south porch and 19th-century vestry are later additions. The building is constructed of flint rubble with some Roman bricks, with Barnack stone dressings and a tiled roof.

The chancel measures 7.87 by 6.36 metres. Its east wall contains two round-headed windows separated internally by a round-headed recess, all of the 12th century. The north wall has two round-headed 12th-century windows, one now concealed by the organ. The south wall displays two windows: the eastern is a 13th-century lancet partly restored, while the western is 19th-century except for the splays and square head which are 15th-century. Between these windows is a 13th-century doorway with chamfered jambs and a 2-centred head, with a double-chamfered label and round rear-arch. The chancel arch is round-headed with a roll-moulded edge incorporating one carinated fillet and a double billeted label. The responds have attached shafts with moulded bases and a cablework ring above, topped by scalloped capitals with cablework rings and double-chamfered abaci, mostly dating to the 12th century though with some later restoration. Above the arch is a 19th-century bullseye piercing. The north impost of the arch is a reused 11th-century gravestone bearing a Ringerike design on its upper face, mostly covered but showing a conventionalised beast.

The nave measures 18.78 by 7.27 metres. Its north wall contains two windows: the eastern is of 14th-century date with two trefoiled and sub-cusped ogee lights with tracery beneath a square head; the segmental-pointed rear-arch has a moulded label with headstops, the western representing a man and the other defaced. Three steps of a former newel stair to the rood-loft are cut into the window-edge, with the north arris of the window chamfered and its head-stop mutilated in connection with this inserted stair. The western window is round-headed and of the 12th century. Further west is the 12th-century north doorway, its jambs having attached angle-shafts covered with incised chevron fluting and cushion capitals carved with zigzag patterns on the under-slopes and moulded bases with spur-ornaments. The semi-circular arch carries the same moulding as the chancel arch and a 19th-century tympanum.

The south wall of the nave contains three windows: the easternmost is a restored 13th-century lancet; the second has two cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a square head with a flat segmental rear-arch, of 15th-century date and restored; the westernmost is a restored 13th-century lancet. West of the second window is the 12th-century south doorway, similar to the north doorway but with more elaborate detail. Its cushion capitals are each carved with a mask, the eastern with pelleted ribbons issuing from the mouth, the western with two birds pecking the beard. In the reveal next to the western capital are five incised squares with swastikas. The chamfered abaci have incised zigzag ornament on their vertical faces. The arch has a roll-moulded edge with two carinated fillets between it and an outer roll moulding, a double billeted label, and a tympanum carved with zigzag ornament in concentric semi-circles enclosed by a cable-border. The west wall of the nave contains a 19th-century window.

The nave has been extended westward by approximately 4.5 metres to accommodate a 15th-century timber-fronted bell-turret consisting of four posts with arch-braced tiebeams, clad externally with weatherboards and containing pointed lights in the north, south and west walls, with a 19th-century shingled spire.

The 15th-century south porch has a moulded plinth and an embattled parapet with a drip-moulded string-course, containing in the middle of the south side a cinquefoiled niche with a square head. The entrance archway has a 2-centred arch in a square head with a moulded label and quatrefoiledand trefoiled spandrels each bearing a blank shield. The moulded jambs each have an attached shaft with a moulded capital and base. Each side wall contains a window of two trefoiled lights, flanked internally by trefoiled panels with moulded jambs and head.

The roof of the chancel consists of seven cants with double collars and inclined ashlar-pieces, with one slightly cranked tiebeam. The wallplates are moulded in convex and concave quadrants between steps. The roof is of uncertain 14th or 15th-century date. The roof of the nave is similar, except with only one collar to each rafter couple and more inclined ashlar-pieces. The cyma mouldings of the wallplates are partly concealed by wall plaster, and there are three plain tiebeams. This roof is also of 14th or 15th-century construction. The 15th-century roof of the south porch has moulded and embattled wallplates and moulded main timbers, partly restored.

The church contains three bells: one by Miles Gray (1634), one possibly by John Dier (16th century), and one by John Hodson (1664).

The floor of the chancel contains several brasses and stone slabs. There is a brass of John Wyseman, auditor of the revenue of the crown to Henry VIII, and his wife Agnes (1558), featuring figures of a man in armour and a woman kneeling before prayer-desks, with four sons and six daughters behind them and four shields of arms. Another brass commemorates Thomas Fytche and Agnes (Wyseman) his wife (1588), showing figures of a man in armour, woman, three sons and three daughters. Stone slabs commemorate Elizabeth (Wiseman), wife of Robert Tyderleigh (1654); Elizabeth (Capell), wife of Sir William Wiseman, Bart. (1660), bearing a lozenge of arms; and Anne, Lady Wyseman (1662), with a shield of arms. The vestry contains a black marble slab of Francis Penwarne (1722) and a limestone slab of John Gower (1782). Inside the north door is a black marble slab of Stephen Alger (1829) and Sarah his wife (1847).

On the south wall of the nave is a monument to Sir William Wyseman, Bart. (1684) and Anne (Prescott) his wife (1662), formerly mounted on the east wall of the chancel. It is a tablet with half-length figures of a man and woman flanked by Ionic columns supporting an entablature and segmental pediment with a cartouche of arms.

In an arched recess in the east wall of the chancel, formerly covered by the monument to Sir William Wyseman, is a painting of the Blessed Virgin suckling the Child, who sits on her lap. She is crowned and wears a full red cloak over a girdled gown, seated on a stone throne with fluted cornice raised on a dais of two steps, the upper with rounded edge and fluted riser. The recess displays below the dais a border with running foliage pattern. The edge of the arch has painted foliage, and below the figure are masonry lines and a consecration cross in white on a red circle. The windows flanking the recess have their arches outlined with a band of stiff foliage and, on the north, with a masoned pattern, and on the south with a zigzag pattern. The splayed soffits display large red and yellow foliage designs and radiating masonry lines. The imposts are indicated by bands of foliage. The splays and most of the east wall have painted masonry lines, restored. The central group is little restored. Pevsner describes this painting as "one of the best 13th-century representations of the subject in the whole country, full of tenderness", dating it to circa 1250 by comparison with the Matthew Paris manuscripts.

A stoup is located in the west jamb of the north doorway, formed from a rough basin hollowed from the front. Below the west window is a five-metre length of oak panelling of circa 1600.