Church of St. Mary

The Church of St. Mary is a medieval parish church, extensively restored in 1888 and again in 1960-1. It is constructed of flint and chert, with brick and Lincolnshire limestone dressings, and lead roofs. The church comprises a west tower, a nave, a chancel, a north porch, a north chapel, and the ruins of a south chapel.

The three-stage west tower is of stone-dressed flint, featuring an embattled parapet with lozenge flushwork, a gargoyle on each face, and stepped diagonal buttresses. A Perpendicular three-light west window has panel tracery with alternating knapped flint and brick voussoirs. Smaller, single cusphead lights are present on the second stage, and two-light openings on the bell stage, although the tracery has been lost.

The north side of the nave and chapel is constructed of galletted flint, partly renewed, with stone dressings and a brick dentil cornice. Here, two tall windows mirror the tracery of the tower’s west window. A similar window has been renewed on the north face of the chapel, which has a gable parapet and pantiles. The low north porch is of knapped flint, with a four-centred arch supported by stone corbels bearing the Heydon arms. The north doorway has plain chamfered jambs with a hollow chamfer and wave moulding to the arch, and a hood mould.

The south nave has four bays, with a brick dentil cornice, stepped buttresses, and a south doorway similar to the north doorway but wider. Three tall windows, with tracery similar to the tower’s west window, are also present. A ruined south chapel stands with partial flint walls; the east gable of the nave has been renewed in brick.

The chancel’s south wall and the southern portion of the east wall incorporate regular coursed flint and brick, with brick quoins and a low stone string course. Two Decorated two-light windows are positioned to the south, with renewed tracery. A small 19th-century two-light window is in the east wall, set within a larger blocked Perpendicular opening. Part of the north chancel wall is rendered in flint, with renewed brick eaves courses, a blocked north door, and a re-inserted lancet window dating to 1960, with new stone dressings.

Inside, a double-framed roof was renewed in the 19th century. The tall tower arch has plain jambs and stone corbels bearing shields to the inner chamfered arch. Walls are rendered, and the continuous chancel arch has a keystone and internal buttresses. A blocked rood loft doorway is located to the north, leading to a wide stair in the north chapel. The chancel floor is raised and finished with a flat ceiling. A 15th-century eastern sepulchre stands to the north, featuring a four-centred arch under a crocketted ogee arch, crocketted side pinnacles, panel tracery above the arch and below a slab, and a polygonal 15th-century pedestal with embattled moulding across the north-east angle of the chancel. Above the north door are two blank semicircular headed arches, one with projecting imposts. A Royal achievement for Queen Anne, altered with the addition of "GR/1797", is also visible. Fragments of 15th-century glass, depicting female saints, are in the three tracery panels of the south-east window of the nave. An octagonal font dating from around 1500 is inscribed with the names of the donors, William and Beatrice Kelling, and depicts various motifs including the Agnus Dei, the Trinity, the Passion, the arms of England, the Prince of Wales, East Anglia, St. Paul and St. Peter.