Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church with a history spanning the 12th century, significantly altered and extended in 1858-9 by the architect Penrice of Lowestoft. The building is constructed from flint with limestone dressings, and features steeply pitched plain tiled roofs. It comprises a western annexe or narthex, a nave with north and south aisles, an apsed chancel, and a central tower.

A round-headed 12th-century doorway is located on the west side, featuring shafts with cushion capitals, a roll moulded arch, and a renewed hood mould with billet decoration on corbelstops. Directly above the doorway is a two-light Perpendicular window. The south wall displays a round-headed 12th-century lancet window and a doorway with a pointed arched head, wave moulding, and a plain chamfered reveal. The square central tower incorporates engaged corner shafts and round-headed sound openings with chevron decoration. The twin bell openings on each face feature a central shaft and cushion capital within a large semicircular recess, decorated with roll, billet, and bobbin moulds, accompanied by narrow blind arched openings. A billet moulded string course runs above, surmounted by a later parapet resting on a corbel table with carved head corbels. Small lean-to chambers flank the north and south sides of the tower, lit by single semicircular headed windows.

The 19th-century north and south aisles are executed in a Romanesque style. The south aisle has a tripartite west window and a circular window in the gable apex, with pilaster buttresses dividing the window bays. A polygonal chapel projects from the east gable. A gabled bellcote sits atop the east gable of the nave. The 19th-century chancel apse features semicircular headed windows, with a stone modillion eaves cornice around the east end and a chimney stack located in the angle between the chancel and north aisle, incorporating engaged shafts. The north aisle mirrors the south, with one-light semicircular headed east and west windows.

A 12th-century north doorway leads to the narthex, exhibiting shafts with restored volute capitals, a zigzag arch, and a billet hood mould. Inside, the narthex has a simple braced rafter roof, a moulded cornice, and wallposts with angel bases. The base of the tower retains four plain semicircular arches on plain imposts, slightly corbelled out on the south-east and south-west piers, with deeply splayed reveals to the north and south windows. The nave roof comprises braced rafters and arch braced principals, with wallposts featuring angels at their bases, the cornice exhibiting two tiers of castellations. The 19th-century Romanesque arcades consist of massive piers and responds featuring zigzag and spiral decoration. A roll moulded semicircular chancel arch connects to the chancel. The apse has two bays of blank arcading beneath each window, and a plastered ceiling with ribs on shafts. The chancel floor is paved with 18th-century slabs commemorating the Bacon and Schutz families. Other features include a brass to John Everard (d.1553), a 19th-century font with a square bowl and spiral moulded stem, two panels of a 15th-century screen preserved on the north wall of the narthex, displaying original colour and lettering, a wall monument to Nicholas Bacon (d.1666) with a cartouche framed by Corinthian columns and an entablature bearing arms, and console brackets.