Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

This parish church, dating from the 12th to early 17th centuries, stands on the west side of Thurnham Lane. It comprises a west tower, continuous nave and chancel with opposed north and south porches at the west end, and a rectangular north chapel towards the east end of the nave. The building is constructed of random flint and stone, except for the north chapel which is built of galleted stone and the porches which use small uneven blocks of stone. Plain tile roofs cover the structure.

The west tower is battlemented and of two stages, the upper stage possibly rebuilt. It features angle buttresses, cusped single-light belfry openings, a small Decorated west window, and a small west door with a two-centred arched head, lightly-moulded jambs and hood-mould. The tower arch inside is of 14th-century date.

The south wall of the nave and chancel contains two restored early Perpendicular windows with hood-moulds towards the west end, one restored lancet, and one cusped two-light window with no central light set in an architrave with angled head. A slight trace of a straight-joint immediately east of the lancet indicates that the section to the west dates from the 12th or 13th century, while the section to the east is 14th-century. The east end has clasping buttresses and a large restored Decorated east window under hood-moulds stopped with carved heads.

The south porch dates from the early 15th century and is built on a plinth, with an earlier inner door featuring a two-centred arched head and moulded jambs. The north porch is similar in construction but retains its original roof.

The north chapel, dating to circa 1603, is rectangular and stands on a high stone plinth with a small hipped roof behind a battlemented parapet. Its east wall contains a large rectangular window of four plain round-headed lights under a hood-mould, while the north wall has a smaller three-light window in the same style with a restored blocked three-centred arched doorway with rectangular hood-mould to the west. A small projecting stone stack stands at the junction of the west wall and nave. The north wall of the nave has a single restored early Perpendicular window.

The interior contains a blocked round-headed Norman window in the west end of the north wall. Three possibly 14th-century crown-post trusses survive in the nave, featuring moulded tie-beams and crown-posts. The chancel roof has a collar purlin but no crown-posts. The chapel roof dates to the early 17th century with a moulded beam and joists.

Stone fragments remain in the south wall of the chancel, including one containing the top of a small decorative shaft. Moulded corbels in the north and south walls possibly supported a rood loft. The chancel contains an aumbry, a piscina with a shaped stone basin, and a two-centred arched sedile with filletted roll-moulding. An elaborate reredos carved in Oberammergau commemorates Mrs Julia Jane Hampson, who died in 1904, wife of the Reverend William Seymour Hampson. Late 18th or early 19th-century pews remain in place. An octagonal font, possibly of 14th-century date, is decorated with eight different emblems.

Monuments include two small brasses in the chapel floor: one to William Covert and one to Lady Barbara Cutt, who died in 1618 and founded the chapel in honour of Sir Henry Cutt, knight, her first husband. On the west wall of the chapel stands a monument with an open pediment and fluted pilasters with a shield to the base, commemorating Richard Sheldon Esquire, who died in 1736. The south wall of the chancel bears a monument in the form of a parchment hung with drapes and surmounted by a shield and gadrooned vase, erected in memory of Mariae Dering, who died in 1725. The north wall of the chancel contains a monument with a broken pediment containing a plain urn, commemorating Thomas Wise, who died in 1790, and other members of the family. A similar adjacent monument commemorates Thomas Burwash, who died in 1791, and members of the Wise family.