Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Purley. Built in 1870 by G.E. Street in 14th-century style, with a tower dated 1626 on its second stage to the south, and a large addition of circa 1980 to the north. The main body is constructed of flint with stone dressings, plinth, angle buttresses, and a cill string to the east. The roofs are old tile with parapeted gable ends. The tower is of brick with stone dressings, plinth, plat band and cornice; it features reused 14th-century gargoyles set against a battlemented parapet.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, south porch, and vestry with hall to the north. The tower has three stages. The third stage has 2-light louvred bellchamber openings on all faces. The second stage has a square-headed west window with 2 cusped lights. The first stage contains a square-headed west window with 2 arched lights and returned hoodmould, plus a boarded arched door to the north with imposts.

The nave is four bays deep with 2-light south windows. An arched doorway between the first and second windows from the left has 2 boarded doors and a hoodmould. The south porch has a parapeted gable and moulded archway with hoodmould and carved stops. The chancel is three bays with lancets to the south and a 3-light east window with hoodmould and carved stops. The vestry contains a reset 13th-century lancet and door, now bricked in. The circa 1980 addition to the north features a reset 15th-century four-centred arched window of 3 lights with cusped heads.

The interior nave has a 4-bay roof with ties and arch bracing to collars. A 3-bay north arcade has round piers with moulded capitals and bases, and chamfered arches. A chamfered tower arch leads to the chancel, which has a moulded arch with no capitals and a hoodmould. The chancel roof is of waggon type. A reset 12th-century moulded chancel arch in the north wall, now bricked in, has one order with single scallop capitals. The chancel includes a cill string, a north doorway to the vestry with hoodmould and carved stops, sedilia beneath the south window, and a piscina with cusped arch.

Interior fittings include a 19th-century arcaded reredos, communion rails, a 19th-century octagonal wooden pulpit with traceried panels and stone base, and a 12th-century tub font on columns with intersecting blank arcading.

Monuments include one to Anne Hyde of 1632 featuring a reclining figure flanked by obelisks and pilasters with broken segmental pediment above and cherubs below; one to Anthony Stover of 1818 in Grecian style with a figure holding an extinguished torch and a family group turning towards an urn bearing a portrait of the deceased; and an early 16th-century monument to Jane Wardby. A brass to William Noble dates to 1644.