Church Of St Mary The Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a parish church located in Ryston, Bexwell. It features an early 12th-century west tower, a nave, and a continuous chancel, with alterations made in the 14th and 15th centuries, and restoration completed in 1874. The church is constructed from carstone with ashlar dressings and has a slate roof.

The tower is circular and consists of four stages, topped with a late 14th-century octagonal belfry. It has a two-light Perpendicular west window set under a basket arch, along with a round-headed door to the ringing chamber and a row of blocked ashlar lancets above. The belfry features two-light Perpendicular windows and battlements above a string course. There is a gabled south porch supported by diagonal buttresses, which includes two-light Perpendicular side windows. The porch has a four-centred arch beneath a pointed relieving arch made of brick, with a hood mould over the inner south door that has head stops. To the right of the door is a holy water stoup, and above the apex of the porch is a 15th-century statuary niche with a finial and incised vaulting.

Inside, the nave has one pointed 12th-century lancet window on both the north and south sides, along with an additional smaller lancet on the north side. The nave and chancel are supported by flat buttresses, with an angle buttress to the east. There are two-light cusped Y windows on the north and south sides, and a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular window to the east, which is a group of three lancets from 1874. The north nave features a large stepped late 18th-century brick buttress.

The interior includes a tall round-headed tower arch resting on square imposts, with deeply splayed 12th-century lancets. There is a 19th-century screen at the west end of the nave, and the chancel has stepped sedilia with a cinquefoiled piscina, the head of which has been adapted to form an aumbry. The roof is a 19th-century king post design.