Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating back to the 13th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 15th and 20th centuries. It consists of a nave, a west porch, north and south transepts, a chancel, and a south chapel, constructed of rubble stone and ashlar with stone dressings, and covered by a lead roof.

The nave has a single window on each wall, each featuring three trefoil-cusped lights with panel tracery within a two-centred arch, inserted in the 15th century. Diagonal buttresses, also dating to the 15th century, support the nave walls. The west porch, originally 13th century, was largely rebuilt in the 15th century and includes diagonal buttresses. Its outer arch showcases a thin double roll-moulding and a keeled label which returns. A remnant of a Holy Water stoup is present. The north and south transepts, also from the 13th century, have been reinforced with 15th-century diagonal buttresses. Their windows are similar to those in the nave, but with cinquefoiled lights.

The central crossing tower is of three stages, incorporating 13th-century crossing arches, and with an upper section added in the 15th century, featuring a plain parapet and gargoyles. The second stage originally contained square-headed windows on each face, although all but the north window have been blocked. The bell-chamber is lit by windows of two trefoiled lights with plain vertical tracery within a square head, surmounted by a label. The chancel was rebuilt between 1907 and 1913, featuring trefoil-cusped heads and panel tracery, with small quatrefoils within the head. A two-light window is located on the north side. The south chapel, rebuilt between 1907 and 1913, stands on the site of a 16th-century chapel.

Inside, the crossing reveals respond shafts with plainly moulded bases and capitals. The south transept contains a piscina with an ogee-trefoil head, a roll-mould over, and chamfered sides and capitals. The roof of the north transept retains 15th-century moulded plates, a ridge-beam, and joists, with arched braces springing from 15th-century head-corbels. The nave roof is a modern replacement. Notable fittings include a 17th-century west door with heavy strap-hinges, a 13th-century stone font of octagonal bowl form, with a short cylindrical stem and moulded base, and a wooden, octagonal pulpit on an open-legged base. Carved representations of the Signs of the Evangelists are also present, dating to the 20th century. Wall tablets in the nave commemorate Susannah, widow of Samuel Kitson, who died in 1832; this tablet, by Reynolds, Yeovil, is made of black and white marble and displays the form of a table tomb. A stone wall-tablet in the south transept commemorates Thomas Foster and Ann, who died in 1778 and 1783 respectively.