Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating to 1846-8, designed by R C Hussey. It incorporates the base of a 15th-century tower and was extended and restored in 1861 and 1881. The church is constructed of Wealden sandstone with Caen stone dressings and a plain tiled roof. It comprises a chancel with a south chapel, a nave with aisles, north and south porches, a north-western vestry, and a western tower.

The three-stage tower, at least the lower two stages of which date back to the 15th century, features offset corner buttresses and a basement leading to a recessed stone spire with enriched lucarnes. A vice is located in the north-western angle. A stone clock face is set into the north elevation. The west window is 15th century, while the western doorway is of 19th-century Perpendicular style. The remainder of the building is a 19th-century reconstruction of the medieval church, built in the Decorated style. Fenestration features segmental heads and reticulated tracery to the nave, cusped tracery and pointed arched heads with hood moulds to the chapel, and split cusp and “Geometric” tracery to the chancel. The north-western vestry has a cusped bargeboard to its projecting gable.

Inside, a tall, narrow 15th-century tower arch is framed by a double eaves-moulded surround and round responds with octagonal capitals. The west doorway has a blank traceried surround with thin shafts, and the west window sits above an embattled and quatrefoiled frieze, all dating to the 19th century. A three-bay south arcade has pointed horse-shoe shaped arches. A two-bay north arcade, added in 1861, has finer moulding and normal pointed arches. Octagonal piers and responds, along with double chamfered arches, are found in both arcades. The nave has an embattled wall plate and moulded corbels supporting a boarded waggon roof. The south aisle has a pierced queen post roof on corbels, while the north aisle features a braced rafter roof. Window reveals, doors to the porch and vestry have string courses and hood moulds. The chancel and south chapel arches are in a similar style to the nave south arcade. The chancel has a trussed rafter roof, and the south chapel a boarded roof. Fittings include a painted stone surround to the east window, creating a triptych effect with texts in the flanking panels. There are also 19th-century choir stalls, a half-height screen with a quatrefoil frieze and spiked rail, a trelobed piscina on the north wall, a tiled sanctuary, a black and white tiled chancel, and a carved wooden altar. Benches and box pews with integral brass candleholders are in the nave and aisles. A brass lecturn and a wooden pulpit which sits on a stone base are present, along with an octagonal font with a two-tier wooden cover and an iron and brass font crane. Throughout the church is early 19th-century geometric glass, with later 19th-century glass in the east windows, notably the chancel east window dedicated to Rev Edward Moore in 1891, by W Bucknall and J N Comper. Incised and painted texts and inscriptions are above various doorways and arches, with one over the south porch recording the restoration and enlargement of the church by Reverend Edward and Lady Harriet Moore in 1847. Moore, who was both patron and vicar, was responsible for numerous buildings and facilities within the parish.