Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This parish church was formerly the nave of a priory church founded in the 12th century for Augustinian Canons. The west tower dates from the 14th century, the south porch was added around 1685, and the building underwent repairs around 1789.

The church is constructed of flint rubble with ashlar dressings and a plain tiled roof. The stone walls of the nave are plastered, while the south porch is built of red brick. The plan consists of a nave with a west tower and a south porch.

The west front of the tower features diagonal buttresses with flush-work panels that reduce at each stage. At ground floor level is a blocked doorway with an ashlar surround decorated with keels, ogee and cavetto rolled mouldings and a hood mould above. The first stage contains a two-light window with trefoil ogee heads and a quatrefoil to the apex. At the second stage is a cusped lancet. The third, belfry stage has a two-light window with trefoil heads and a quatrefoil to the apex. Moulded string courses run beneath the belfry window and the battlemented parapet, which features flush-work tracery panels and heraldic beasts at the corners. The south face is blank at all stages except for the belfry window, which has matching detailing to that on the west. A staircase turret with ashlar quoins at the corners rises to the second stage. The north face follows the same treatment as the south, but lacks a stair turret; there is brick patching around the belfry opening.

The south porch, dating from around 1685, is positioned at the west end of the nave and is built of English bond brick. It contains a central round-arched doorway with a 6-panelled door. The porch has an ogee-shaped gable with a brick band below, and round-headed windows to the side elevations, one of which is blocked.

The south elevation of the nave east of the porch displays two 13th-century windows with intersecting Y-tracery. Between them is a buttress with stone dressings and two offsets, below the upper of which is a slightly angled sundial bearing the date 1608. The wider angled buttress at the east end has stone dressings and three offsets and is similar to angle buttresses at the east end of the north elevation and two on the east elevation. The east elevation was built around 1789 and incorporates a re-set 14th-century window of 3 lights with intersections, glazing bars and tracery featuring cinquefoil heads and daggers above. The north elevation is blank and has 3 buttresses, each with 3 offsets.

Inside, a 12th-century doorway leads from the porch into the nave, decorated with chevron and billet motifs and having cushion capitals. On the north side of the nave is a similar opposing doorway (blocked), discovered in 1994, with identical decoration. The foot of the north doorway sits 0.8 metres below the nave floor, possibly respecting the level of the cloister into which it led. The nave has colonettes at either side with cushion capitals, billet and chevron mouldings to the outer arch, and wave moulding to the inner arch. The roof, not exposed, dates to the 18th century. The tower arch is slender and uses reused, decorated Norman stone. On either side of the tower arch are niches containing sculptured fragments, presumably from the Canons Chancel.

Fragments of memorials to the Naunton family remain in the church. A 14th-century brass to Sir John Wingfield and a 15th-century brass to Sir Thomas Wingfield, restored to the church, are mounted on the walls rather than in their original positions. Further 17th-century memorials to the Wingfield and Naunton families are located at the east end. The altar table is said to be 17th century in origin. The early 19th-century pulpit has a fluted frieze, and the nave box pews are of the same period.