Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church with origins in the 12th century. The building comprises a 12th-century west tower, nave and aisles dating to around 1300, a 15th-century clerestorey, a chancel of around 1300, and a 14th-century south transept. The structure is built of flint with stone dressings; the chancel uses clunch rubble with stone dressings. The nave and porch roofs are slated, while the aisle and chancel roofs are leaded.

The west tower is round and was enclosed at ground level around 1900 by the west bays of the aisles. Above aisle roof level, north and south lean-to projections of carstone and flint with tiled roofs were added at the same period. The exposed lower section of the tower contains a 2-light 19th-century Decorated west window with a triangular-headed opening above it, possibly 12th-century in origin, and a Decorated quatrefoil opening. The fully exposed round upper section features a circa 1300 octagonal belfry stage with stone corbelling, a stone table, stone quoins, and four 2-light windows with "Y"-tracery, a parapet and weather vane.

The north aisle has one east and west window and three north straight-headed 3-light Decorated windows. At the north-east corner is a contemporary circa 1300 2-light ogee-headed window with drip mould. The north porch dates to the 14th century and features a large stilted Decorated entrance arch with segmental triangular traceried openings on the east and west returns, together with arch and panelled doors of circa 1840.

The south aisle contains one west and three south straight-headed Decorated windows. The south porch matches the north porch in its details. The clerestorey is a fine six-bay Perpendicular design built of squared knapped flint with stone dressings and voussoirs to four-centred 3-light tracery windows.

The south transept dates to the 14th century and has on its west return one 2-light circa 1300 ogee-headed window as found on the north aisle, a 3-light 19th-century south window, and two 2-light Curvilinear north windows.

The chancel was truncated in the late 18th century, though some early details may have been reused. The north side has a single lancet of circa 1300 and one 2-light Early English window with central shaft, foliage capitals, arch, sub-arch and super-arch. The south side features one 2-light early Decorated tracery window of circa 1300, a priest's door of the same period, and an east gable with a 3-light window of mid-19th-century date.

Interior: The interior contains a fine six-bay north and south nave arcade of circa 1300 with round piers (except for one octagonal example on the north side), abacus-moulded bases and capitals, and double-chamfered arches. The line of the arches continues as a blank arch across the squared-up base of the tower in the westerly bays of the aisles. The east face of the tower has a Decorated-Perpendicular west arch with a blocked 12th-century tower chamber door above it. The Perpendicular clerestorey has one window in the south-west corner blocked by the roof pitch of the south transept. A 19th-century arched braced roof covers the nave; aisle roofs and wooden screens across the west aisle bays date to circa 1840.

The south transept was added at the east end of the south aisle, with a cross arch thrown across. A heightened 15th-century roof was added after the construction of the nave clerestorey, featuring arched braces forming rounded arches and no collar beam. Wall posts rest on circa 1840 plaster corbel heads; those to the aisles have been replaced by later 19th-century stone heads, now decorating the aisle window sills. A semi-octagonal Perpendicular rood stair with door and large tracery-headed niche stands at the junction of the chancel and south transept. The east bay of the north aisle has a cross arch, presumably intended for a north transept either not built or later demolished.

The chancel features a Decorated-Perpendicular arch, a circa 1840 rood screen and an arched braced roof. On the south side is a partly exposed arch of a blocked circa 1300 south window.

Furnishings: A 13th-century square Purbeck marble font with blank arcading stands on four recut octagonal piers. Nave spandrels display circa 1300 red foliage and ashlar jointing painting. The south aisle contains consecration crosses and a 14th-century Saint Christopher figure, dated around 1360.