Church of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a church with a complex history, originally dating back to the 12th century. The nave was significantly extended around 1210 to create a larger chancel, and a new nave was added to the west. A transeptal chapel was constructed on the south side, and a 19th-century vestry was added later. The church was restored in 1896. The building is constructed with stone dressings on a pebbledashed exterior, featuring tiled roofs and a shingled, splayed foot spire with a weathervane.

The west tower has three stages with diagonal buttresses and a newel turret. It features louvred bell chamber openings on all sides. A 14th-century window with two ogee lights and a hoodmould is located to the west, with an octagonal clock above. The original 12th-century west doorway has been re-set, displaying shafts with chevron ornament, carved doves on the capitals, and a round arch with cable moulding.

The south side of the nave has a 15th-century window with two ogee lights under a square head. The north side features a 14th-century window with two ogee lights to the east and a blocked 12th-century doorway to the right. Further west are a cusped lancet and a pair of cusped lancets. The chancel’s south side includes a 19th-century round arched window, another 19th-century window with two ogee lights under a segmental head, and a round-arched doorway with impost mouldings and a keystone to the east. The east end has diagonal buttresses and three lancets. The north side has two lancets to the east, separated by a large buttress, a trefoil-headed lancet to the west, and a small 15th-century cinque-foiled square-headed window above, originally to illuminate a rood loft.

The transeptal chapel has a cusped lancet to the west, a 14th-century window to the south with two ogee lights and a hoodmould, and a cusped lancet with a 19th-century 13th-century-style doorway below to the east. The vestry features a lancet to the west, a two-light window with Y-tracery to the south, and a 19th-century door with a lancet above to the east.

Inside, the church has a large unmoulded tower arch, two small arched recesses in the wall, a blind arch to the south door with a carved head above, a wagon roof to the nave with carved bosses, and an old king post roof to the chancel. Furnishings include a 16th-century pulpit and tester, a 16th-century painted Flemish Triptych, 17th-century nave wall panelling, hatchments, a Charles I coat of arms, an 18th-century chandelier, and a 19th-century font. There are 14th-century wall paintings of St. Christopher in the south transeptal chapel, with a 15th-century canopy to the right, as well as vivid 19th-century paintings in the nave and chancel. Glass dating from the 13th century, depicting the Annunciation and the Coronation of the Virgin, is found in the north windows. A large chest tomb from around 1530 is located in the south transeptal chapel, dedicated to Sir George Forster and his wife Elizabeth Delamare, featuring alabaster recumbent effigies and small figures under canopies on the sides.