Church Of St Mary

The Church of St. Mary is a parish church dating to the 14th century with later additions. It is constructed of flint with ashlar dressings, and incorporates a brick mausoleum. The roofs are slate and lead. The church comprises a western tower, an aisleless nave with a south porch, and a chancel with a mausoleum to the north.

The 14th-century west tower features diagonal buttresses, each containing a pair of niches with cusped and crocketted ogee arches and statue bases supported by Atlas figures. The west window is a restored 2-light design with a single cusped soufflet. An empty arched niche sits above, and circular traceried sound holes are present to the north and south. The bell openings have also been restored as 2-light designs.

The nave has six 3-light Perpendicular windows with embattled transoms. The south porch has a badly worn moulded entrance, alongside plain chamfered north and south entrances. The chancel contains a blocked priest’s door and three 2-light Decorated windows, two with mouchettes flanking a dagger motif, and one with four radiating petals. A particularly fine reticulated 5-light east window illuminates the chancel.

The 18th-century Coke family mausoleum features honeycomb ventilation openings, a Victorian moulded brick 2-light window, and five later sloping buttresses. Inside, the tower arch displays half shafts, filletted rolls and wave mouldings. A simple cusped nave piscina is located on the south side. A 15th-century octagonal font with quatrefoils is also present. The chancel arch has polygonal responds.

The chancel houses several outstanding Coke family monuments. A notable example is the alabaster monument to Briget Coke, née Paston, wife of Edward (died 1598), featuring an arched niche with a kneeling effigy, flanked pilasters with partly painted carved trophies, ribbon-work, a carved achievement in a strapwork surround, and eight kneeling weepers. A black and white marble monument to Sir Edward Coke (died 1634), the work of Nicholas Stone, depicts a simple sarcophagus on a pedestal with a lying effigy, accompanied by two long inscriptions. Flanking Tuscan columns support a full entablature with putti on the frieze and a broken segmental pediment, which holds a carved and painted achievement flanked by four reclining figures of the Virtues.

The tomb chest to Robert Coke (died in 1679) has consoles flanking the inscription, supporting a broken and open segmental pediment with an achievement. A veined marble monument to Thomas, first Earl of Leicester (died 1759) and his son (died 1753), created by Charles Atkinson and dated 1760, showcases a gadrooned sarcophagus on a pedestal, topped with a carved and painted achievement surrounded by extravagant mantling, flanked by a pair of Composite columns supporting a dentilated pediment. Carved bust figures of the Earl and Countess were sculpted by Roubiliac. A white marble monument in memory of Jane Coke (died 1800), by Nollekens and dated 1805, includes a flat obelisk background and a pedestal supporting a carving centred around a broken column with a standing figure of a woman (effigy) leaning on it in front of an opened book, with an angel on a cloud above and a putto holding up a flaming heart below.