Church Of St Mary

A parish church dating from the 14th century, with significant 15th-century additions. The building comprises a 14th-century nave, 15th-century chancel, 15th-century north porch and 14th-century south porch, and a 14th-century west tower. The structure is built of flint, rubble and red brick with some plaster and flint flushwork, under red plain tiled roofs. The church has undergone 19th-century and earlier repairs and restorations, including 20th-century work to the south and west walls. The east wall of the west tower was rebuilt in brick in the 19th or 20th century.

The chancel was funded by legacies left in 1458 and 1459 for building the chancel and sanctuary. The east wall is mainly of rubble with brick repair to the gable apex. Corner buttresses run the length of the north and south walls. The east window has been restored and comprises five cinquefoiled ogee lights with tracery above, set within a moulded two-centred arch with a label featuring lion mask stops. Both the north and south walls each contain two three-light windows with graduated transoms, moulded segmental heads and labels, with buttresses positioned between the windows. A chamfered pointed segmental-headed doorway on the south wall has a 19th-century board door positioned east of the south wall buttress.

The nave has three windows to the south wall, with the gabled south porch situated between the westernmost windows. These windows contain two trefoiled ogee lights with quatrefoils above, chamfered two-centred heads and labels. The eastern window is taller and wider than the others, and all have been restored in the 19th or 20th century. The north wall features a similar western window and an eastern window of two chamfered lights with a two-centred head and label. Buttresses mark the angles.

The north porch is gabled with a cross at the apex. Above the doorway is a blocked niche with a moulded two-centred head and label. The moulded two-centred arch has an inner order resting on shafts with moulded capitals and bases. Side windows contain two cinquefoiled lights with two-centred heads and labels. Stone and flint flushwork panels decorate the plinth, with buttresses at the outer angles.

The south porch is plastered with stone coping to the gable and was rebuilt circa 1911 for Reverend C Elliot at a cost of £57, including ceiling, floor and an east window of two lights with a four-centred head and label. It features a moulded two-centred arch and label over the outer doorway and a panelled oak door.

The west tower is crenellated and comprises three stages with buttresses to the east wall that issue through the roof of the nave. Stepped angle buttresses mark the west wall, with a band below the bell chamber. The moulded plinth features stone and flint diapering extending to the western buttresses. Each face of the bell chamber contains a louvred window of two cinquefoiled ogee lights with quatrefoils above and two-centred heads and labels. The west face has a small blocked round-headed light to the second stage. The first stage window contains three trefoiled lights with quatrefoils above, a chamfered two-centred head and label. The tower has been extensively restored and repaired.

Interior

The north porch has a square red brick floor with a seven cant roof. Remains of a stoup survive in the south-west corner. Fragments of old glass in the west window depict the star of the De Veres, Earls of Oxford. The north doorway features a two-centred arch and label with stylised head stops.

The chancel has a boarded seven cant roof with bosses to moulded ribs and moulded and crenellated wall plates. The south wall contains a piscina with a chamfered Tudor arch and covered drain. The sanctuary floor is paved in 19th-century coloured tiles. 19th-century iron and wood altar rails and 19th-century stained glass occupy the windows. Two wall monuments flank the east window, each featuring a centre arch, moulded base with coat of arms beneath, pilasters with crocketed pinnacles and carved head bases. A wall monument by Flaxman comprises a black marble base with flag and anchor, in front of which stands a white marble seated female figure in flowing robes, commemorating Rear-Admiral Western (died 1814) and his wife Mary (died 1856). An organ by Bevington and Sons of London was installed in 1887 to commemorate the jubilee of Queen Victoria. War memorials to the south wall commemorate the 1914-18 and 1939-45 wars. Two floor slabs of the 18th or 19th century are laid for the Grant and Elliot families. There is no chancel arch.

The nave features a double hammerbeam roof spanning four and a half bays with moulded wall plates. The carved heads are said to have been destroyed in the 17th century by the Parliamentarian William Dowsing and were restored during the 1930s. A worn 18th-century floor slab and two 19th-century floor slabs commemorate the Bell and Western families. 19th and 20th-century stained glass occupies the windows, the majority from the firm of Clayton and Bell. Wall monuments from the 19th and 20th centuries adorn the walls. A 19th-century carved wood octagonal pulpit with stone base stands in the nave. 19th-century pews feature carved front panels, poppyheads and panelled backs. A 13th-century octagonal font with lancet panels has a 19th-century stem, bases and wooden cover. A piscina is said to exist in the south wall but is hidden by the pulpit.

Buttresses to the west tower project into the nave; there is no tower arch. Five bells are recorded: three cast by John Darbie of Ipswich in 1661, one by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel in 1795, and a fifth inscribed "Ransomes and Sims Made Me, 1853," possibly the only bell in England cast by this firm.