Church Of St Mary

The Church of St. Mary is a parish church with a tower dating to the Perpendicular period, a nave rebuilt in 1778, and a chancel that is partly Perpendicular. The tower is constructed of squared and knapped flint with stone dressings, the nave of cut stone, and the chancel is cemented with stone dressings, all under 20th-century concrete pantiled roofs. The church was begun by Henry of Nottingham, a judge and member of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster under Henry IV (1399-1413), although only the elaborate tower and part of the chancel survive from that time.

The tower is four stories high and features a porch on the ground floor with an elaborate hollowed and chamfered arch set within a square frame with tracery. The porch contains a star vault with bosses, corner columns, and stone benches. Windows are brick dressed. A Perpendicular door is set above a niche. The tower has a plinth and angle buttresses on the south face, while parts of buttresses extend at right angles on the north face. The first floor has four two-light mullioned and transomed windows with swept hood-moulds, internally boarded. The second floor has a traceried sound-hole window, and the third floor has three-light traceried belfry windows to each face. Brick battlements and four stone spirelet finials top the tower. Ground floor windows on the east and west faces are two-light Perpendicular windows, with a single lancet window on the first floor and rectangular lights providing access to the internal stairs. A simplified two-light belfry window is found on the north face.

The nave, built in 1778, has three bays and features two straight-headed windows and a central round-headed window, all of three lights with mullions. The chancel, partly from the early 15th century, has a blocked south window and priest’s door, with a sill remaining from a further blocked window. Two angle buttresses stand on the south side and two on the east. The east window of 1778 features a stone sill, impost, keystone, metal glazing bars, and an arched fanlight head. The north face of the nave is blank and is adjoined by a circa 1840 Gothick vestry constructed of pebble flint with brick dressings.

Inside, the springing of the original west window's embrasure is built into the northwest angle of the tower. A 20th-century lobby connects the tower to the 1778 west front, with a simple classical door. The nave’s interior retains a 19th-century roof. A Perpendicular chancel arch is present. The south side of the chancel contains a simple Decorated three-arch sedilia with columns and a double arched piscina from around 1300. A painted royal arms of 1779 is positioned over the south priest’s door, while a carved Royal Arms predating 1802 is over the vestry door. An alabaster wall monument, depicting kneeling figures on two rows with obelisks and a central roundel, dates to 1607. A brass inscription commemorates Henry of Nottingham and his wife, who built the church steeple and quire. High Victorian stone features include a pulpit and font. A three-light stained glass window of the mid 19th century is set in the west wall. The date of the 1778 rebuilding and the initials of the churchwardens are inscribed above the west front.