Lych Gate, Bridge And Retaining Wall To Churchyard At Church Of St Mary

The lych gate, bridge, and retaining wall at the Church of St. Mary were built between 1870 and 1871 by Henry Woodyer as part of the church's outworks for William Robert Baker of Bayfordbury. The structure features an oak frame and a Kentish ragstone bridge with sidewalls. The wall consists of alternating bands of Kentish ragstone and red brick, topped with a hipped and gabletted roof made of red tiles, which has a wrought iron foliate cross on top.

The lych gate is a small square structure raised on the low parapets of the bridge, which spans a ha-ha and is supported by a banded retaining wall that serves as the new boundary for the churchyard, extended to the southeast and southwest when the new church was constructed to the south of the former church.

The gate is supported by four posts on sill beams running north-south, featuring convex quadrant bracing to the sill and arched bracing to the wallplates in both directions. The roof has a single bay crown-post design with square posts and axial curved braces. The gablets have pierced boarding infill, similar to the gabled vents in the church roof. There is ragstone infill between the side-posts and a simple double gate. The retaining wall has a special brick-on-edge red coping, and there is a pointed arch over the watercourse beneath the bridge.