Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. The building is constructed mainly from random kidney flint with freestone dressings, with slate tiles covering the nave roof and old plain tiles on the chancel. It comprises a nave, chancel with a vestry on its north side, south porch, short south aisle, and west tower.

The north side of the nave features long stepped buttresses and a doorway with continuous multiple moulding to the pointed arch, topped by a hood-mould. Three tall 2-light Perpendicular windows with cuspings light this elevation, and the parapet above has mouldings and gargoyles with render finish. The south side of the nave is faced in black knapped flint mixed with small stone blocks and red brick, and is lit by six 2-light clerestorey windows with cusped heads and hood-moulds. The short south aisle has one 3-light and one 2-light Perpendicular window, with a parapet featuring two gargoyles.

The 14th-century chancel has windows on its north and south sides, all of 2 lights with 4-petalled flower motifs in their tracery. The east end is buttressed diagonally, and the priest's door has a continuous plain arch. The 3-light east window contains cusped quatrefoils in its tracery.

The fine 15th-century south porch projects from the west end of the aisle. Its sides are faced in black knapped flint, while the front displays long narrow trefoil-headed flushwork panels with additional flushwork at the base and on the diagonal buttresses—one of which bears emblems of the Passion. The doorway spandrels are carved with St George and the Dragon, and a canopied niche stands above. The parapet retains flushwork panels and the remains of crockets. Inside, stone benches run down each side, and an open timber roof with miniature arched-brace trusses covers the space.

The 15th-century tower is built in four stages. The lowest stage uses black knapped flint with stone blocks, while the upper stages are heavily repointed. The base consists of freestone blocks with much-damaged flushwork panels bearing various emblems including a crowned MR. The battlemented parapet has flushwork panelling and an inscription to John Fincham and his wife. Stone string-courses and diagonal buttresses with flushwork panels reinforce the structure. The west doorway is spanned by a continuous arch. A 3-light window with cusped intersecting tracery lights the first stage, and each face of the top stage has a 2-light window, 19th-century restored.

Internally, the nave and aisle are separated by a 14th-century arcade with octagonal piers. The nave roof is constructed in seven short bays with alternating hammerbeams and tie-beams, both resting on wall-posts carved with small figures. The hammerbeams support large recumbent angels, while the tie-beam trusses have long arched braces to the collars with fully moulded soffits. Two rows of triangular-section moulded purlins run throughout, surmounted by a crenellated cornice. Two later tie-beams inserted in 1703 are dated and bear the names of the churchwardens.

A 14th-century octagonal font stands in the nave, its base adorned with mutilated shields and its bowl decorated with flamboyant ogee arches supported on heads, topped with crenellation.

The south aisle has a single-pitch timber roof with arched braces to moulded tie-beams, ties, and trimmers. A cusped angle piscina is set into the south wall, accompanied by a simple Jacobean holy table and a Jacobean chest.

The chancel roof spans four bays with alternating hammer-beam and arched-brace trusses, the spaces between hammer-posts and rafters filled with tracery. A 14th-century piscina on the south side is accompanied by space for sedilia. The benches and other fittings in the nave and chancel date from the restoration of 1868. The stained glass in the east window is from 1920.