Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This church dates from the early 13th century, with an early 14th-century chancel and alterations from the 15th and 18th centuries. It is built of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, and has a late 19th and 20th-century gabled tile roof. The building comprises a chancel, aisled nave, and a west tower.

The chancel has offset buttresses, a three-light Decorated east window, and two-light windows in its two-bay side walls. The south wall features a central pointed moulded priest's door and a 16th-century chamfered light. The three-bay north aisle contains late 15th-century three-light windows, an early 14th-century two-light window at its west end, and a 13th-century pointed moulded doorway. The south aisle, crenellated in the late 15th century, has a similar early 14th-century window at its east end, similar late 15th-century windows, and a late 15th-century porch with a four-light wood-mullioned window above a four-centred moulded doorway. An early 14th-century pointed moulded south doorway also opens into this aisle.

The three-stage tower has an early 13th-century pointed chamfered doorway with a 18th-century studded door, an early 13th-century two-light window, a second-stage 18th-century round window, and 13th-century third-stage two-light Y-tracery windows. The parapet is 18th-century crenellated with pinnacles. The spire collapsed in 1727.

The interior of the chancel contains a Decorated piscina and sedilia, a studded priest's door with early 14th-century wrought-iron hinges, and a plain aumbry with recesses. The chancel is remarkable for its complete sequences of fine early 14th-century wall paintings. The south wall depicts the Last Judgement and Life of the Virgin; the north wall shows the Tree of Jesse and the Life of Christ. The east wall features the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, the Ascension, Resurrection, and Descent into Hell. The splays of the windows are decorated with figures of Saints.

Monumental brasses commemorate Reginald Barantyn (died 1441) and Hugh Barantyn with wives Joan (died 1446) and Lady Beatrice. A Baroque memorial to Rev. Francis Markham (died 1668) displays a garlanded cartouche with angels supporting a coat of arms. An early 19th-century memorial tablet commemorates the wife of Rev. John Lewis from Ireland. A late 17th-century communion rail of barley-sugar balusters stands at the chancel entry, and an early 14th-century chancel arch separates the chancel from the nave.

The nave has an early 13th-century four-bay south arcade of small pointed arches and roll-moulded Transitional arches on circular piers with water-leaf capitals. The early 13th-century three-bay north arcade features chamfered Transitional arches on circular piers with moulded and foliate capitals. An 18th-century memorial tablet to the Adeane family hangs above a Jacobean pulpit. The font, dating to around 1660-70, stands on a barley-sugar stem. A painted memorial mural commemorates Robert Quatremaine (died 1697). The roof is a four-bay arch-braced collar-truss type with curved windbraces.

The south aisle contains a 13th-century piscina. The north aisle has a squint to the chancel, an early 14th-century wall painting north of the east window, and a slate memorial tablet to Benedict Winchcombe (died 1623) depicting his family. Two boards commemorate local charities. A parish chest dated TK 1674 FG stands next to the north door. Stained glass includes two similar quarries of angel heads at the head of the east-bay window of the north aisle.

The early 14th-century paintings in the chancel are among the best preserved in the country.