Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This parish church originated in the late 12th century and was rebuilt in the 14th century, then altered and extended in the 15th century. A tower was added in the 17th century. The entire church underwent restoration in 1857 by Sir Gilbert Scott. The structure is built of flint, Bath stone and ferricrete, with part of the exterior roughcast; the west tower is of brick with a tiled gabled roof.

The church consists of a four-bay nave, chancel, south chapel (built 1596), south aisle with four-bay arcade (rebuilt 1857), and west tower (rebuilt around 1630). A gabled porch entry on the north side was added in the 19th century and stands over a late 12th-century doorway. This original doorway features two semi-circular hollow chamfered orders; the jambs of the outer order are shafted, while those of the inner order are moulded with a small roll. The nave and chancel walls are buttressed, with angle buttresses of two offsets at the north and south-east angles of the chancel.

Windows date from different periods. Two early 14th-century windows survive on the north wall of the chancel: the eastern has two acutely pointed cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoiled spandrel and two-centred head, while the western has two cinquefoiled lights with flamboyant tracery in a similar head. A 19th-century window on the south wall of the chancel copies the corresponding design from the north wall. The 16th-century east window of the south chapel has three pointed uncusped lights with mullions carried up into a two-centred containing head. A 19th-century doorway with four-centred head stands to its north, and a square-headed south window of three plain transomed lights is present. A stone panel in the gable of the east wall is inscribed 1596 E M.

The nave has three north windows; the easternmost is similar to the easternmost window in the chancel's north wall, while three others date from the late 15th century with three cinquefoiled lights within square heads. The late 12th-century doorway sits between these. Three windows on the south wall of the south aisle are present: the easternmost resembles the corresponding nave window but is heavily restored, while the other two are late 15th-century, each with three cinquefoiled lights and vertical tracery within a square head.

The west tower is built of brick in three stages with brick and stone plinth, decorative raised brick strings at each stage, embattled parapet, and angled octagonal buttresses rising to the third stage. The west doorway has a semi-circular head with projecting brick key, surmounted by a moulded brick entablature supported by header corbels. Above it is a five-light window within a square head; the string course breaks upward over this window to form a label. The ringing chamber is lit on north and south by square-headed windows of two plain lights with two-centred heads and flat brick mullions. The belfry is lit on all four faces by similar two-light windows, with walls slightly recessed in the centre of each face.

Interior

The nave roof dates from the late 14th century and is supported by four trusses with large timbers of plain crownposts braced twice to the collar purlins. The collars and heavily cambered tie beams are supported by wall posts and short curved braces resting on stone corbels. The crown posts are strutted at their feet on the tie beams by unusually large curved braces. The 17th-century roof to the aisle is a double butt purlin roof complete with large windbraces at both levels, supported by rough queen post trusses. A scissor brace truss, the second from the east, is probably early 15th-century. The 16th-century roof of the south chapel has a pentagonal wooden ceiling with moulded ribs and carved bosses at their intersections. A large Jacobean chest with three locks is preserved in the south aisle.

Monuments

The west wall of the nave displays a Purbeck marble tablet sculptured with a shield of 12 quarters, an inscription on a scroll beneath, and below this a broken sword dated 1576 on its hilt. On the west wall of the south aisle stands an elaborate mural marble monument to Edward Martin (died 1604) and his wife Mary (died 1607). He was probably the builder of the south chapel, with initials corresponding to those on the stone panel dated 1596 on the east gable. The monument is framed by Corinthian columns supporting an entablature, surmounted by a shield. Alabaster figures kneel in prayer; Edward Martin's figure is missing, while those of his wife and daughter remain. The north wall of the nave bears a marble tablet sculptured with a shield to Henry Beke (died 1580), with a crested helm above the arms and two smaller shields below with an inscription. The south wall of the south aisle displays a very elaborate marble and alabaster monument to Henry Beke, with kneeling figures of himself, his wife, and daughter on a projecting base. Two female figures support an entablature, surmounted in the centre by a pedimented structure bearing a sculptured shield of his arms with a crested helm. The entablature breaks forward over the heads of the supporting figures and is crowned by small obelisks standing on pedestals. A black marble panel on the base contains a description dated Anno Domini 1627.