Church Of Saint Mary

The Church of Saint Mary is a Grade II* listed ruin of a parish church located in Tilney St. Lawrence. The church features a late 13th-century nave, transepts, and chancel, with a 15th-century west tower added during a remodeling of the church. The structure is made of rendered ashlar and carstone, with some brick used in the tower.

The tower is three stages high and includes angle buttresses, an arched west door situated below a string course, and a three-light Perpendicular style west window. The ringing chamber has twin lancets, and the brick belfry stage is pierced by two-light reticulated belfry windows, topped with a crenellated parapet and a stair turret on the southwest. Inside, the tall eastern tower arch leads to a nave that has three-light square-headed windows and flat stepped buttresses, although the nave itself has no roof. The gables of the transepts are supported by angle buttresses, with the north transept featuring a north window of three stepped lancets, while the corresponding south transept window is a three-light Perpendicular style.

The chancel's west wall was rebuilt in 1972 and includes three lancets. The east window of the chancel is a Perpendicular style window with three lights beneath a segmental arch. To the south, there is a two-light Y tracery window, an arched priests' door, and two paired lancets. The chancel is roofed with pantiles.

Inside the chancel, there is a wall monument on the north wall dedicated to Edward Bagge, dated 1846. This monument features a predula panel with an inscription below a relief carving of a reclining figure addressed by an angel, all beneath a four-centred Gothic arch with a hood mould. On the east wall, there is a monument to the three sons and four daughters of Anthony Dixon, dated 1723, made of marble and featuring fluted pilasters that support an open pediment, along with an oval bowed inscription panel and a carved predella depicting two winged cherubs in a floral field.

The tower belfry retains a 15th-century timber bell frame, designed as a three-bay rectangular cage that is scissor-braced to the north and south, with the central bay featuring vertical studs and arched braces supporting the fulcrum point of the bell hanger.