Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed medieval church with a chapel dating from around 1605, which was restored in 1846. The building features a nave, chancel, north chapel, south porch, and a west tower. It is constructed of flint rubble, with the 1846 work faced in rounded flints, and the chapel made of red brick. The church has limestone quoins and dressings, along with parapet gables that include kneelers. The roof is covered with plain tiles.

The nave contains an unmoulded arched Norman north doorway, which is blocked, and has a 19th-century lancet window and a two-light window in the south wall designed in the perpendicular style. There is a 19th-century south doorway leading to a gabled porch. The tower, built in 1846 in an early perpendicular style, features crenellated parapets and a three-light west window. The chancel includes a mid-14th century two-light cusped east window and a smaller similar south window, both restored in 1846.

The roof over the nave, chancel, and chapel was rebuilt in 1846 and features pine scissor trusses with butt purlins, boarded soffits with square applied panels, and a crenellated cornice. The trusses rest on limestone carved grotesque corbels, which are either medieval or closely copied from original patterns in the 19th century. Inside, there are 19th-century benches, an organ, and an octagonal pulpit. A medieval limestone octagonal font, possibly from the 13th or 14th century, sits on an octagonal shaft and base.

In the sanctuary, there is early 17th-century oak panelling with original painted floral decoration, believed to have been taken from Denham Hall. The chapel, which was almost entirely rebuilt in the 19th century, contains a large canopied table monument to Sir Edward Lewkenor and his wife Susan, who both died in 1605 from smallpox. This monument features kneeling effigies of both individuals along with eight children, and the canopy is adorned with obelisks and strapwork supported by Corinthian columns. Additionally, there is a monument to their grandson Sir Edward Lewkenor, who died in 1634, featuring a marble tomb by S. and M. Christmas with a recumbent effigy in armour.