Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating from the medieval period, with substantial restoration work carried out in 1866. It is constructed of flint rubble with stone dressings, with a leaded nave roof and a plaintiled chancel roof. The church comprises a nave, chancel, a west tower, and a south porch.

The mid-15th century square tower rises to a height of 23 metres and features 4-stage diagonal buttresses with chequer flushwork and a crenellated parapet, which was restored in the mid-20th century. It has a moulded west doorway with shield-carved spandrels, and a renewed three-light window above. There are two-light belfry openings. The four-bay nave, completed around 1478, and the contemporary porch are enriched with various flushwork designs on the plinth and buttresses, and feature large three-light windows. A good south doorway has two orders of shafts and continuous mouldings, retaining its original door. The north doorway has a single order of shafts supporting a hoodmould, with carved fleurons, masks, and beasts' heads on the jambs and arch, also retaining its original door. The fine porch has additional flushwork designs and arched panelling above, with a moulded entrance arch featuring carved spandrels depicting St George and the dragon, an empty canopied statue niche, and a crenellated parapet with flushwork. The original roof maintains moulded timbers.

The three-bay chancel, dating from around 1300, retains its two-light side windows and Priest's doorway, along with a four-light east window with Geometric tracery. The windows are internally hoodmoulded. Internally, the nave is notable for its fine original nine-bay double hammerbeam roof, featuring pierced tracery above the lower hammerbeams and collars, an enriched cornice, and 20th-century additions of angels at the ends of the lower hammerbeams. The chancel has an arched-braced roof dating from 1866. The chancel also contains an intact piscina from around 1300 with a drop-sill sedilia adjacent, and a further piscina in the south-east nave. A roof loft stair is situated in the north-east corner of the nave, featuring original arched entrances above and below. The church houses a 15th-century octagonal font with a wide, two-stepped base; its bowl is carved with the Signs of the Evangelists and shield-bearing angels, with four lions against the stem and an original inscription at the base. A tall 15th-century font cover with a crocketed and buttressed canopy, extensively restored, was repainted and gilded in 1963. A fine and unusual set of early 17th-century nave box pews splay outwards to the west, featuring carved ends with knob finials and back-to-back consoles. One carved panel on the front of a bench at the east end bears the date 1630. An early 17th-century carved hexagonal pulpit is suspended with a tester, and includes a later wooden base and alterations. A section of a 15th-century rood screen remains, featuring six two-light traceried panels. Mid-to-late 19th-century chancel furnishings include a marble and stone reredos. The chancel also contains three good wall monuments: those of Sir John Major (1781), Dame Ann Henniker (1792), and Elizabeth, Dowager Duchess of Chandos (1813). Several 17th to 18th-century ledger slabs are found in the nave. Fragments of 15th-century glass remain in the tracery of the nave windows. Small remains of medieval wall painting are visible on the north nave wall, and on the south-east wall, part of another painting showing a fleur-de-lys and crown. A framed depiction of the Arms of George III, dating from around 1810, is on the north nave wall.