Parish Church Of St Mary

The parish church of St Mary is a complex building with origins in the 14th century, a west tower dating to around 1400, a 15th-century south porch, and a 16th-century west doorway and north nave wall. A substantial restoration occurred in 1876, undertaken by C W and E R Dale and Woodman, under the supervision of G R Crickmay. The south chapel was likely originally dedicated to Sibyl de Glaunvyll. The church is constructed of coursed rubble, with ashlar dressings; the south chapel is of knapped flint with hamstone ashlar dressings and bands. The nave and chancel have gable-ended roofs of stone slate, while the south chapel roof is copper.

The west tower is two stages high, featuring diagonal buttresses to the west and a square vice turret to the north. The west doorway has a 4-centred chamfered arch with continuous jambs. Above this is a 2-light window with cinque-foiled panelled tracery, set beneath a 2-centred head with a label. The second stage has four 2-light windows with trefoiled panelled tracery and lattice work, separated by a string course with gargoyles and an ashlar battlement with crocketted corner finials. The gabled south porch has two-stage angled buttresses in the west; the arch is 2-centred, with continuously moulded heads and jambs, and it includes a small trefoiled window to the west. The chapel’s east window is of three lights with curvilinear tracery, while the south windows are 2-centred with moulded labels, the east incorporating geometric tracery and the west curvilinear tracery. The nave and chancel windows are of 2-lights with panelled tracery and 2-centred heads. The east chancel window has three ogee-headed lights with panelled tracery beneath a 2-centred head with a label.

Internal features include a 2-centred tower arch and a similarly styled chancel arch with continuously moulded jambs with applied shafts and capitals. A squint consisting of three arches connects the chancel and chapel, and a single 4-centred arch links the chapel to the nave. The chapel windows incorporate interior shafts. Two niches with 4-centred heads are set within the south chapel wall; the eastern niche contains a recumbent effigy. The chapel also features numerous early tiles. A Purbeck marble octagonal font, dating to the early 13th century, and a 14th-century chapel altar slab are present. Various monuments are displayed, including a large late 17th-century classical tablet with kneeling figures commemorating John Every. Fragments of early stained glass remain, along with 17th-century panelling behind the altar. The church also includes 19th and 20th-century roofs, a 19th-century pulpit and pews (the chapel pews having good quality carved ends).