Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church with origins dating back to the 14th century, which underwent alterations and extensions between 1857 and 1899. It features a southwest tower, a nave with a south aisle, a chancel, a north transept, and a south vestry. The building is constructed from septaria brick and flint, with stone dressings and tile roofs. The tower was rebuilt in 1899 in a perpendicular style and consists of three stages, with the lower two made of uncoursed flint and the upper stage featuring flushwork panels. It has angle buttresses on the second stage and a south doorway with multiple mouldings, along with corner turrets on the upper stage.

The nave, primarily from the 14th century, has a south aisle added around 1860 on the site of an earlier aisle. The north wall is made of septaria, while the west wall and aisle are of uncoursed flint. The north wall includes two 19th-century windows in the Decorated style and two blocked original openings. The west window is a 19th-century design in the style of the 14th century. The south aisle has three bays with two-light windows in the 14th-century style. The chancel features a south wall from the 14th century made of septaria, brick, and tile, while the east wall was rebuilt in 1866 with a window in the 14th-century style. The north wall and transept are made of brick, and the south wall includes a 14th-century priest's doorway beneath a hood mould with figure stops.

Inside, there is a three-bay south arcade supported by octagonal piers, and an eight-bay queen post roof held up by cambered tie beams. Some original collars, purlins, and rafters are present but obscured by a 19th-century plastered ceiling, which is supported by a visible two-bay structure. The rebuilt west end of the nave has a 19th-century scissor-braced roof, while the south aisle features a 19th-century queen strut roof. The chancel has a blocked 19th-century doorway in the south wall and a hammer beam roof from the 19th century. There is a dado from a 15th-century screen with blank traceried panels. The font is a mid-15th-century octagonal East Anglian type, with a stem flanked by two lions and two woodwoses, supporting a bowl decorated with alternating panels of lions and angels, and angels bearing shields on the underside. A bell dating to around 1500 is inscribed 'Sancte Johannes ora pro Nobis'. There is also a Purbeck memorial slab and brasses for William, who died in 1459, and Alice Taberd, with the brasses reset in the south wall. Additionally, there is a brass memorial to William Symond, born in 1601 and died in 1612, featuring a kneeling effigy and an acrostic verse. A septaria buttress from the earlier church tower stands to the southwest of the present tower.