Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating back to the early 12th century. The chancel was lengthened in the mid-12th century, and the windows were largely replaced in the 15th and 16th centuries. A south porch was added in 1701 and subsequently restored in 1858 and 1895. The church is constructed of rubble flint, plastered except for the east side, with stone quoins and dressings, and has old plain tile roofs.

Originally a small church comprising a chancel and nave with a west bell-gable, the chancel was likely lengthened in the mid-12th century. The east window of the chancel is a restored 3-light square-headed window dating from the 14th century. Diagonal corner buttresses were added in the 16th century. The north and south walls at the east end each contain a late 12th-century roundheaded lancet window. A second 12th-century lancet is set lower in the south wall, originally without a chamfer but later given a pointed head, potentially the original southeast window. Further west, on the north and south walls, are 15th-century square-headed 2-light windows with cinquefoiled tracery. A stone cross, likely from the 19th century, sits on the east gable.

The taller and wider nave features a roundheaded lancet window on the north wall, set high within the wall. A 19th-century square-headed perpendicular 2-light window occupies the space where a north doorway once stood. The south wall at the east end contains a gabled brick porch with stone keys to the archway, inscribed "1701 P + L CW." A plain roundheaded doorway inside the porch has a quirked abacus, and five-sided windows are positioned high on either side. The west window is a restored 15th-century square-headed cinqfoiled window with moulded jambs and mullions. Three 18th-century headstones commemorate the Smith family. The west gable has a pair of unequal pointed bell openings dating from the 19th century, and a 19th-century cross sits on the gable.

Inside the chancel, the east window has splayed 14th-century jambs. The eastern lancets are also widely splayed. Beneath the southeast lancet is a small roundheaded recess with a hole in its soffit. The central south lancet has an altered sill, and a 13th-century wallpainting of a young person beneath a crocketed gable is visible on the east jamb. A monument of 1755 to A Weekes, by T Baker of London, features an inscription panel flanked by columns supporting an open pediment. A 1707 monument to T Hobbs displays volutes and garlands on either side of the inscription panel. The church has a 19th-century collar roof, a tiled floor that slopes from the altar rails to the chancel arch, and other 19th-century fittings. The roundheaded chancel arch is plain, with a quirked impost, and is flanked by later roundheaded squints. A reset 15th-century stone head wearing a cap is set into the north nave wall, to the west of the original lancet. The other windows have wide splays. East of the south doorway is a piscina with a mutilated bowl, and to the west of the door is a 16th-century alms box fashioned from a tree trunk. A Norman font of Purbeck marble, with a square bowl, moulded stem, and square base, stands at the west end. The remainder of the fittings are from the 19th century. The roof is predominantly 19th-century, although it retains older wall plates and four tiebeams; the east wall is set back at this level, indicating an earlier flat ceiling.