Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church that dates from the medieval period and later. It is constructed of flint with ashlar and brick dressings, topped with slate and pantile roofs. The church features a western tower, an exceptionally wide aisleless nave, a north porch, and a chancel. The 14th-century west tower is notable for its chequer flushwork on the diagonal buttresses. The tower has a moulded west doorway and a three-light Perpendicular window above it, along with a two-light cusped Y-traceried window on the second storey. The bell-openings are two-light with ogees and cusped soufflets, and the tower is capped with a crenellated parapet adorned with fine flushwork and crocketted corner pinnacles.

The nave is buttressed and has six three-light panel traceried Perpendicular windows. The two-storey porch features diagonal buttresses, an ogee-headed niche above the plainly moulded entrance, and four two-light Y-traceried side windows. The north and south nave doorways are also moulded. The chancel has four three-light panel traceried side windows and a Victorian five-light east window in Perpendicular style. Both the nave and chancel have parapets with a fleuron-decorated cornice.

Inside, the tower and chancel arches have polygonal responds and plain chamfered arches. There is a piscina in the south nave. The lower parts of the nave and chancel walls are decorated with colourful Victorian encaustic tiles, and there are Victorian wall paintings. In the chancel, there are two monuments, including a wall monument in memory of Katherine Skippe (died 1629) made of black and white marble. This monument features a pair of Doric columns flanking an inscription, supported on a pedestal with consoles and a strapwork apron between. Above it is an achievement with deeply carved mantling, contained within an aedicule with a scrolled open pediment and flanking heraldic beasts. Below is a tomb chest, likely of Thomas Skippe, with finely carved heraldry. The church also retains a surviving 15th-century chancel screen dado with eight paintings of saints, and four re-set late medieval painted dado panels in the tower screen of unknown provenance. The nave windows, west window, and lower side windows of the porch contain high-quality medieval glass, and the church features decorative Victorian roofs.