Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church dating from the 14th century, with alterations and extensions in the 16th, 17th, and 19th centuries. The 19th-century work was carried out by George Edmund Street.

The church is constructed from dark brown conglomerate stone (ferricrete) galleted with large pieces of similar material, with Bath stone dressings. It has an old tile coped gabled roof and a brick tower in Flemish bond.

The plan comprises a nave divided down the centre by oak posts, a south chapel, south porch, a tower positioned at the south-west angle, a chancel, and a north vestry with organ chamber.

The tower was originally timber-framed but was rebuilt in brick by the parish in 1629. It has three stages with an embattled parapet and clasping buttresses with three offsets. Moulded brick labels are positioned over all openings. The south doorway is pointed, with a large elliptical-headed window above containing three brick-mullioned lights. The intermediate stage is lit from the west by a pointed single light with a square label. The bell chamber has pointed two-light windows on all four sides and a clock face on the south side.

The north front of the nave has three two-stage buttresses and three two-light windows with trefoiled heads and pierced spandrels; the middle window dates from the 19th century while the other windows are 14th-century work. The west front has three two-light windows with trefoiled heads: the two northern windows are 14th-century, though the second has been restored, while the southern window is 19th-century work set in a brick wall.

The south front features a 19th-century coped gabled porch containing a 14th-century doorway with a two-centred head and external label. West of this is a 14th-century single-light window with a trefoiled head. To the right of the porch are two two-stage buttresses with one three-light window and one two-light window, both of 19th-century date.

The south chapel has a south front with a two-light 19th-century window in Early English style and a panelled door to its right in a doorway with a trefoiled head.

The chancel's east front contains a three-light 19th-century window in Early English style.

The vestry and organ chamber on the north side have three lancet windows of different sizes and heights, with two plank doors in pointed-headed doorways. The east side features a three-light 19th-century window in Early English style and above it a large window of four cusped roundels in a semicircular arched opening.

The interior contains a 16th-century nave roof of two spans supported by four octagonal tapering oak columns and one half-column against the west wall. The columns have longitudinal arched braces instead of arches. The roof comprises five bays of arch-braced collar trusses supported on carved consoles. The console on the south face of the easternmost column is carved with a crown and Tudor rose dated 1592, together with the royal initials 'E.R.'. The east wall of the vestry contains a 12th-century shafted piscina carved with interlacing strapwork. A 19th-century wrought-iron screen with high candlesticks is also present.

The principal monuments include a brass on the east wall of the nave to Thomas Mountague, died 1630. On the north wall of the nave is a mural tablet commemorating Thomas Wise, "Master Mason of England to King Charles the Second", died 1685. Additional monuments are present to the Metcalf family, dated 1822 and 1826, by Bedford. A painted text dated 1723 on the south wall has a quasi-stone carved border. The royal coat of arms of George III is positioned over the south door.

The south chapel contains stained glass by Kempe dating from 1833, and a foiled window on the east wall of the chapel by Moberl.