Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A church of 11th century origin, substantially enlarged and altered during the 16th, 17th, 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of stone and flint walling beneath a plain tile roof. It comprises an aisled nave of four bays, a chancel of three bays with north-eastern vestries, a northern transept (largely subsumed into the north choir aisle during the 19th century), a western tower and a south porch.

The west tower, built in 1551-1552, features distinctive chequerboard walling with square blocks of limestone alternating with panels of squared, knapped flints. Three stages are marked by string courses running around the structure, with polygonal buttresses at the corners and an octagonal stair turret to the north-eastern corner lit by rectangular openings. The west face displays a central doorway with a four-centred head in a stone surround with hood mould. Above this is a four-light window with intersecting tracery. The middle stage contains a two-light window with Y tracery, above which is a convex metal clock face. The top belfry stage has a triple opening with louvres and Perpendicular tracery head. The north and south faces are blind to the lowest stage but have similar openings to the middle and upper stages, whilst the east face has a comparable belfry opening. The parapet is battlemented with crocketed corner pinnacles.

Much of the exterior along the south side repeats the chequerboard patterning of the tower, combining ancient material with 19th century restorations. Window tracery has mostly been replaced, apparently to original patterns in some cases. The south aisle is gabled at its western end with a four-light window featuring cusped heads and tracery. The south side is divided into five bays by substantial buttresses with angled buttresses to the corners. A gabled porch is positioned centrally with two windows to the right and one to the left, each of three lights with 19th century tracery. The Lady Chapel, slightly recessed, has two windows of three lights with tracery heads showing cusped arcuated triangles on its east flank and a similar window to its gabled east end.

The chancel, dating from 1853 and probably designed by JB Clacy, features three lancets to its north and south sides and a stepped trio of grouped lancets forming the eastern end, with colonettes beside each light.

A grouping of vestry buildings, including the organ chamber, is positioned on the east side of the northern transept. This comprises a polygonal structure facing east with swept roof, angle buttresses and lancets, and a gabled range running parallel to the transept with a two-light window featuring plate tracery in its northern gable end.

The north transept displays a Tudor-arched doorway in its gable end, above which is a three-light window with Perpendicular tracery, similar to the eastern window of the Lady Chapel. To the right, the north aisle has three bays divided by buttresses with offsets. The Chapel of St Edward projects in front of the lower walling of the central bay with two two-light windows featuring Perpendicular heads and a parapet including chequered patterning. The window to the left has three lights with cusped, reticulated tracery. At right, a two-light window with ogee-arched heads appears to be a reset 14th century piece.

Internally, the nave roof features scissor-beamed trusses with moulded, arched blades rising from wall brackets and posts, with all common rafters having ashlar posts and angle braces connected to collars. The southern nave arcade has pie-crust and ball capitals with plain round drums to the columns and plainly chamfered arches. The south aisle roof employs varied forms of truss and appears to incorporate members salvaged from elsewhere. The eastern end of the former north transept, now incorporated into the north nave aisle, has a wide archway of around 1300 to its eastern wall, formerly leading to a chapel devoted to the Fraternity of the Guild of Jesus. The Chapel of St Edward, intended as a war memorial, contains a panelled stone flat vault and a reredos depicting the Crucifixion, entered via a repositioned Norman doorway with simple, stepped moulding.

The western gallery beneath the tower was installed in 1631-1632 and is supported on brackets showing animals playing instruments. A Father Willis organ was installed in the western gallery in 1864 and relocated to its present position on the north side of the chancel in 1876. The archway of around 1300 in the north transept now has a richly-painted late 19th century door screen showing figures from Chronicles. Stained glass includes windows by Clayton and Bell. Monuments include that to William Kendrick of 1635-1636, signed by John and Matthias Christmas; John Monk by Flaxman of 1809; and a collection of 18th and 19th century wall plaques in the lobby entrance beneath the western tower. The font, gifted in 1616, has an octagonal bowl with quatrefoils. The reredos behind the high altar dates from 1935, designed by HS Rogers, and depicts the Crucifixion flanked by gilded angels.