Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a church dating from around 1250, constructed of rendered walling with a stone slate roof. It is cruciform in plan, featuring a tower over the crossing. The east wall has three blank roundels, originally intended for consecration crosses, above three lancet windows linked by a continuous hood mould, with gablets to the corner buttresses. There are two two-light windows in the mid-13th century style to each side wall of the chancel. The south wall of the chancel contains an early 14th-century window of reticulated design, and a late 19th-century studded door leading to a mid-13th-century gabled porch with engaged columns featuring stiff-leaf capitals. The north transept has two lancet windows to its east wall, with a blank roundel under three lancets in the gable wall, again with corner buttress gablets. There are two unusual gabled projections with three lights extending to the top of the west wall of the north transept. The south transept has lancet windows to both its east and south walls, with corner buttress gablets, and a similar gabled projection to the west wall, adjoining the mid-13th-century porch, which has moulded capitals to engaged columns and a tunnel-vaulted ceiling above an old studded door. A stair turret adjoins the north wall of the nave, leading to the transept. A sexfoil circular window is positioned above a blocked 13th-century doorway, and a mid-17th-century two-light stone-mullioned window is set within the eaves to the left of the circular window, alongside a blank roundel. The south wall of the nave mirrors this with a similar mid-17th-century window and another blank roundel. The gabled south porch has corner buttresses with gablets, late 20th-century carved figures, stiff-leaf capitals to engaged columns inside and out, and a rib vault above the 13th-century door, which retains its original crescent hinges. The west wall features three blind roundels beneath three mid-17th-century lancet windows with segmental heads. The octagonal tower has louvred lancets and a top storey added in the mid-18th century, incorporating an embattled parapet. Inside, the church contains late 19th-century stained glass in the east window and a reredos. The three-bay chancel has wall shafts with moulded capitals and springers, although lacking an arch. The eastern sanctuary bay is separated by an arch dating from around 1852. There are trefoiled heads above a piscina and sedilia, as well as mid-19th-century benches and a desk. The north transept includes detail to the wall shafting, a large square aumbry with hinges, a memorial tablet to Thomas Hughes (1822-96), author of "Tom Brown's Schooldays", and a memorial to Edward Archer (1603), constructed of limestone with two columns supporting foliate capitals and a flat top. A 15th-century chest is also present, along with a trefoiled piscina in each west chapel. The nave incorporates 17th and 18th-century ledger stones to the aisles, a 19th-century wood pulpit, a memorial font from around 1915, and a mid-19th-century crown post roof.