Church Of St Mary The Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade II* listed church located in Frensham, dating back to the 13th century, with a tower added in the 14th century. The tower was restored in 1929 by W. Carõe, while the remainder of the church underwent restoration in 1868 by Hähn. The building is constructed of sandstone rubble, with mortar rendering and older sandstone on the tower, featuring quoins at the corners. It has plain tiled roofs with a ridge crest over the chancel.

The church has a short tower on the west side, accompanied by a nave and north aisle, with the chancel situated to the east and a large gabled porch to the south. The tower is characterized by large diagonal brick buttresses at the west end and consists of two stages topped with a parapet. Each face of the upper stage has a two-light window with trefoil heads, while below are trefoil head lancets. The west side features a large Perpendicular style window above the west doors, which are set in a re-cut surround. The south and east sides also have re-cut windows, and the north side has two higher windows with hood moulds.

The gabled porch, built over plinth walls, includes cinquefoil lights and a tile-hung, bargeboarded gable. The south door is framed by a simple chamfered arched surround and features a studded double door. There is a body stone with an inscribed cross located at the corner of the porch.

Inside, the church has a four-bay nave arcade supported by round piers with wide, overhanging capitals that are naturalistically carved with foliage and birds by R. Hubbucle. The nave features a crown post roof with four bays, while the chancel has a cusped braced roof and the north aisle has a panelled roof. The north side of the chancel has two arched bays, and there is a 19th-century chancel arch along with a 14th/15th-century tower arch, which has two octagonal half-responds and a glazed screen across it. A blocked door is present in the south wall of the chancel.

Notable fittings include an arched piscina on the south wall of the chancel and a square aumbry next to it. There are remains of a wall monument on the north wall of the chancel, flanked by two crocketed buttresses on multiple shafts below the North Chancel window. The pulpit is made of walnut from the 20th century and features elaborate foliage carving. Additionally, there is a square font on a round central stem with detached angle shafts, and a holy water stoup is located adjacent to the south door.