Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating back to the 13th century, with significant alterations in the 15th and 16th centuries. It comprises a nave, north and south aisles, a chancel, a north-east chapel, a west tower, and a south-west vestry, with a north porch. The church is constructed of rubble stone and ashlar, with ashlar dressings and stone slate and lead roofs.

The east end of the north aisle wall incorporates fabric from a former 13th-century north transept. The north and south aisles and chancel were rebuilt in the 15th century, with the nave and aisles featuring five bays, each with a three-light stone mullioned window with panel tracery in pointed heads and short buttresses. A window to the organ chamber has four lights with cusped trefoil ogees and flattened quatrefoils under a four-centred head. The chancel east windows are of five cinque-foiled lights with vertical tracery. The north chapel was rebuilt in 1505 by John Hillary of Meerhay, featuring an east window of four cinquefoiled ogee lights with modern tracery under a two-centred arch.

The early 16th-century west tower comprises three stages with set-back buttresses and pinnacles. It includes a course of quatrefoils, paterae, and coupled bell openings, topped with a crenellated parapet. Sculpture tiers depict a Virgin and Child, a Crucifixion, a Resurrection, and an Ascension, framed by crocketed pinnacles. A polygonal newel stair rises in the north-east corner, also pinnacled. The north porch, dating from the 1860s, has diagonal buttresses, a string, and a crenellated parapet, with a moulded jamb and four-centred head to the arch. The mid-16th century south-west vestry incorporates reset windows.

Inside, the nave arcades have 15th-century piers to the west and 16th-century piers to the east, both with two-centred arches. The nave roof is arch-braced, renewed in the 19th century, with a crenellated wall-plate and one set of purlins. The north and south aisles have pentice roofs with carved head-stops dating from around the 17th century. The chancel roof is also arch-braced, from the 19th century. The chancel arch is 15th century and two centred with a continuous moulded order and a soffit with double panels divided into tiers. A squint gives a view into the south aisle. A font of late 12th century origin is constructed of Purbeck marble; it has a square, shallow bowl with round arcading and a round stem with four colorettes. Piscinae of 14th and 13th-century dates are located in the chancel, north chapel and south aisle. An early 17th-century oak pulpit features an octagonal design with two tiers of arcaded panels. Six brasses of 16th, 17th and 18th-century date are present. Wall monuments within the north aisle commemorate Danel, John and Samuel Cox (1778, 1783, and 1801 respectively), and Richard Symes (1783) and family, while south aisle monuments honour Thomas Strode, Sergeant at Law (1698-9).