Parish Church Of St Mary The Virgin (Church Of England)

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin is an Anglican church dating from around 1230, with a late 14th or early 15th century west tower and late 15th century windows. It underwent restoration in 1850 and general restoration, alongside the rebuilding of a north vestry and a south porch, in 1883 by W O Milne of London. Further work by Milne included an alabaster reredos with mosaic panels in 1896. The church is constructed of flint rubble with a rough plastered finish, with a crenellated brick parapet to the tower, stone dressings, and tiled buttress offsets. Knapped flint uncoursed facing is present elsewhere, with stone dressings and a flushwork chequer of stone and flint on the south porch. The chancel has a copper low-pitched roof, while the nave has a crenellated parapet. A lead roof with a spike and vane adorns the tower, with a slate roof on the northeast vestry.

The building is picturesque and irregular, comprising a two-bay chancel, a taller three-bay nave with a three-bay arcade and north aisle, a square two-stage tower with large diagonal buttresses, a gabled south porch, and a gabled northeast vestry with a chimney and organ chamber. The spacious interior features a chancel with a two-bay arched-braced oak roof, ridge, and one purlin to each slope, with a boss at their junction with a secondary principal at mid-bay. A rear-arch and remnants of a lancet window are visible on the north wall. A double trefoil-headed piscina from the 13th century is located near the altar on the south side. Two 16th century windows are on the south wall, flanking a blocked 19th century pointed doorway. Carved and panelled oak choirstalls, originally from St Mary's Lambeth and installed in 1973, are also present. A 19th century east window is set within the chancel. The 16th century chancel arch has a half-octagonal section and fluted mouldings and capitals. An oak screen dating from around 1520 features side panels and a central opening, with blind tracery fixed to the lower section. The nave features a three-bay roof with cranked tie-beams and 4-centred arched braces springing from moulded wall-posts on carved stone head-corbels. Carved bosses mark the junctions of the ridge and purlins with the secondary principals. A 17th century octagonal oak pulpit with mitred planted mouldings and an arabesque frieze sits at the top. A tall 13th century north arcade features pointed arches of two chamfered orders with circular pillars and moulded caps, and ¾ pillars as imposts. A brass depicting John Kent and his wife, dated 1592, is located in the central aisle before the chancel arch. Two 19th century windows of two lights with tracery are present on the south wall, alongside three two-light windows on the north aisle, and two two-light windows at the east and west ends. A tall four-centred arch leads into the tower, with caps to the jamb shafts. The west window, a 3-light design, has renewed tracery. The pointed west doorway has deeply moulded jambs without caps, intersected by a plinth moulding on the exterior of the tower. Pointed, louvred bell openings feature a clock face below. The bells were recast following a fire in 1958. Stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne is found in the east window (1896), the chancel southwest corner (1883), and the north aisle east window (1897).