Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, and truncation in 1784. It is constructed of flint with stone dressings, with a slated nave and a black glazed pantile chancel, topped by a lead spirelet on the tower. Originally a cruciform church, only the nave survives from the 12th century, alongside a 12th-century south aisle which has since been removed. The west tower is round, incorporating details from the 13th and 14th centuries. The chancel, with 15th-century features, adjoins the nave, while the north aisle was removed in the 14th century. The round tower, presumably added after the collapse of a Norman crossing tower, contains colonnettes with stiff leaf capitals and a double arch with a drip mould. A wooden switch tracery feature is set against a tympanum dating from around 1784, with a niche above, possibly from the 14th century. Belfry windows on the north, south, and west sides are crudely chamfered with Y tracery; the east window has a more advanced round arch with a central colonnette featuring bases and capitals. The nave’s south side displays four 13th-century two-light windows with Y tracery, reset into the remains of a blocked arcade. Four blocked arches are visible on the north side of the nave. A blocked pointed arch marks the location of a former north door, alongside two blocked straight-head drip mould two-light Perpendicular windows set within blocked arcades. Part of a floriated cross remains on the east gable of the nave. The chancel features two south and one north three-light Perpendicular tracery windows. The 14th-century east gable has a stone plinth and set-off angle buttresses, containing a fine flowing tracery four-light window with trefoil mouchettes, cusping, and sub-cusping. Inside, a 13th-century double hollow tower arch sits on respond heads. The blocked 12th-century south arcade has two squat, round piers with simple, deeply chamfered capitals possessing square abaci, and chamfered arches. A built-up north arcade has octagonal piers and double hollow chamfered arches. The fourth bay marks the site of earlier Norman transepts and a crossing; of this, only an east pier and round arch survive to the north, while two rectangular piers and an arch remain to the south. The 14th or 15th-century chancel arch has semi-octagonal piers with bases and capitals, and a moulded, stilted arch. A wall tomb dating from 1601 is located in the north wall of the chancel, featuring a three-panel Perpendicular traceried altar tomb base, possibly a Gothic survival or a re-used element, framed by a classical architrave and pediment. The church is covered by arched braced panelled roofs from the mid-19th century.