Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating from the early 12th century, located in Gayton Thorpe. It is largely constructed of flint with stone dressings, covered by a green slate roof. The church includes a round west tower, a nave, a chancel, a south porch, and a vestry.

The west tower is round, flattened to the east, and features large lumps of Sandringham sandstone and carstone in its lower walls, with larger flints above the bell stage. It has a plain parapet. The west side has two double-splayed lancet windows, a lower undressed lancet, and a semi-circular headed lancet above with a lintel and right jamb formed from a single square-headed stone, and an undressed splay arris. Four bell openings feature two pointed lights with round mullions and side shafts, and a wide semi-circular head with zig-zag moulding above the outer side shafts. The west opening also has zig-zag moulding to the outside of the outer shafts. String courses are present at the impost level and below the openings, with the lower string exhibiting a chevron moulding.

The nave and chancel incorporate some carstone and Sandringham sandstone, with gault brick eaves and a dentil cornice. The west wall includes carstone quoins from an earlier nave, and diagonal buttresses are visible. The north and south sides of the nave each have two 3-light Perpendicular openings under flat 4-centred arches with panel tracery, a super transom to the centre light; the left window of the south nave also has panel tracery.

The gabled south porch has a plain, continuous chamfered arch and square openings to the returns. The south doorway is plain with a worn double chamfered moulding and a hood mould. A vestry was added in 1900 across the opposing north doorway, with gabled flint construction, gault brick dressings, and a slate roof, and has two brick buttresses to the north nave.

The chancel has a gabled cross and diagonal buttresses. The east window is a 3-light window with intersecting tracery. The north chancel is windowless; the south chancel has a Y tracery window to the right and a 2-light window under a square head to the west.

Inside, the church has a 2-tier roof with moulded purlins and principal rafters, collars, and king posts. Alternate bays are arch braced and have hammer beams, with inserted ties at the east and west ends, and to the hammers. The roof was repaired in 1900, and the chancel roof is boarded. A double chamfered chancel arch springs from corbels adorned with heads at the base, a male to the south and a female to the north. A plain piscina is also present, and the rear arch of the south window has been dropped, with a renewed sedilia. C18 panelling lines the east wall, incorporating a forward-breaking reredos under a classical pediment, and featuring fielded panels. A seven sacrament font, without a base, displays a seated Virgin and Child on its east face. A semi-circular headed tower arch is also present.