Church Of St Mary The Less

The Church of St Mary the Less is a parish church with origins dating back to the 11th century, although most of its fabric is from the late 14th century. The west tower was rebuilt in the 15th century, funded by donations between 1427 and 1451, and the chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century. The church is constructed from flint, re-used ashlar, and clunch, with ashlar dressings, while the chancel is made of gault brick. It features slate roofs and consists of a nave, a north aisle, and a chancel.

The west tower has three stages, a flushwork plinth, and stepped diagonal buttresses. It includes a four-centred west doorway with moulded arches and a 19th-century three-light Perpendicular window above. There are string courses between the floors and two-light cusped belfry windows on the north and south sides, set below a crenellated parapet. The gabled south porch has a multiple roll-moulded arch. The south nave is supported by stepped side buttresses and has three 19th-century two-light windows. The north nave aisle is illuminated by two two-light and one three-light Y-tracery windows, also from the 19th century. Both the nave and chancel have gabled roofs, with the chancel's south side featuring two two-light 19th-century windows.

Inside, the inner south doorway has 19th-century mouldings, and the porch roof from the 16th century includes rafters and purlins. Above the door is a canopied statuary niche. The tower arch is wave-moulded, and there is a 19th-century tower screen. The north doorway, dating from the 12th century, features one order of shafts that rise to cushion capitals with a roll-moulded arch. The north arcade consists of two bays with polygonal piers and circular east-west responds, topped with stilted arches. The nave roof from the 19th century has hammerbeams on arched braces. The chancel arch is wave-moulded, and the north chancel chapel has a stilted double-chamfered arch leading to the chancel, with no capitals. There is a single-chamfered arch to the north nave aisle, and the chancel roof, boarded, dates from 1891. The church also contains a 19th-century font and a south nave aisle with an exploded tomb-chest embedded in the wall, dedicated to Sir Richard Fulmerston, who died in 1567. Above the north doorway is a second inscription to Sir Richard, dated 1566.