Church of St. Mary

The Church of St. Mary is a medieval parish church. It is constructed of flint with Lincolnshire Limestone dressings, and has brick elements, all set beneath slate, pantile, and lead roofs. The church comprises a west tower, nave, south aisle, south porch, and chancel.

The embattled tower, built in three stages (its construction noted in a will from 1485), features a basecourse with stone panels, diagonal buttresses, and a west door with shafts and polygonal abaci. The west window has three lights with panel tracery and a hood mould, using alternating brick and flint voussoirs. There are square ringing-chamber openings with tracery, and two-light bell openings with panel tracery under four-centred arches and hood moulds. The battlements have stone panels bearing the name ERPINGHAM, the letters separated by crowned Ms and shields depicting the Instruments of the Passion. A window in the west of the south aisle displays reticulated tracery. The nave is four bays and buttressed, with the south aisle also featuring diagonal buttresses and three three-light windows with panel tracery and staggered transoms. A portion of the aisle wall, along with one buttress, was rebuilt in brick during the 1980s. The north side of the nave has a blocked doorway with continuous moulding, and contains two 19th-century two-light windows and one two-light late medieval window with a square head. The chancel is buttressed to the south and includes a priest's door and two three-light windows with panel tracery, one having an embattled transom. To the north, a cusped Y-tracery window and a three-light Perpendicular window are also present, both with embattled transoms. The east window is a 19th-century four-light design. The buttressed porch has polygonal shafts and abaci to the doorway, featuring a cusped niche above. Two square headed two-light windows are blocked. The nave doorway features continuous moulding with a hood mould. A stone stop depicts a stoop to the right.

Inside the church, the nave arcade is supported by polygonal shafts. The nave has a 19th-century roof, while the south aisle has an arch braced roof. The tower arch has attached shafts with hollows, and the chancel arch has polygonal shafts. A squint of two cusped lights with a square head encloses two encircled quatrefoils. A drop-sill sedilia and a shaft serve a piscina, which has a square hood and two encircled quatrefoils. A brass memorial is dedicated to Sir John de Erpingham (circa 1415) in the south aisle. The octagonal font, originally from St. Benedict’s, Norwich, has heavily damaged panels. The east window contains 15th and 16th century Flemish stained glass, reputedly from Blickling Hall.