Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating from the medieval period with later additions. It is constructed primarily of flint, with ashlar and brick dressings, and has slate, lead, and black pantile roofs. The church comprises a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, a south porch, and a chancel.

The west tower, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, features diagonal buttresses and a stair turret to the south. It displays chequer flushwork on the buttresses. The west doorway is noted for its dying mouldings, and a fine 14th-century niche sits above the doorway, with a nodding ogee arch and little rib vaults. The reveals are fleuron decorated, flanked by a pair of tiny shafts capped with carved beasts. The arch itself is crocketted and contains shields set in tracery, topped by an embattled parapet. A restored three-light Perpendicular window is located on the west side. There are also cusped first-floor lights to the west and south, and two-light traceried bell openings with super mullions. The tower is topped with a crenellated parapet with flushwork and crocketted corner pinnacles.

The north aisle has a plain doorway, a two-light Y-traceried west window, and four three-light Perpendicular windows. The south aisle features a partly blocked two-light Decorated west window, along with three three-light Perpendicular windows. A later clearstorey contains fourteen three-light Perpendicular windows, plus a large three-light east window.

The chancel has been thoroughly restored and includes five two-light cusped Y-traceried side windows, a priest’s door, a two-light Perpendicular window, and a three-light Perpendicular east window with embattled transoms. The south porch has diagonal buttresses, a plain entrance arch, and two-light cusped side windows, with a double ogee-moulded doorway.

Inside, the chancel contains an angle piscina with trilobe cusping. A plain piscina is also found in the south aisle. The tower and chancel arches rest on polygonal responds, with a plain chamfered response to the chancel and a wave moulded one to the tower. A rood stair is located to the north. The nave has four bays, exhibiting one pair of surviving 14th-century octagonal piers. The four westernmost piers have been remodelled to support the two very wide western bays, likely dating from the 19th century. Blocked quatrefoil clearstorey windows from the 14th century are visible from the aisles. The nave features a fine 15th-century arch-braced roof on wall posts with carved stone corbels; painted carved angels are on the ridge purlin, and crosses on the side purlins. Two sections of a 15th-century chancel screen, with original paintings, are preserved in the north aisle. Several medieval poppy head bench ends remain.