Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating back to the 14th century, with subsequent alterations and additions through the 15th and 19th centuries. The church comprises a 14th-century nave and aisles, a 14th/15th-century chancel, and a 15th-century west tower. The south porch was rebuilt in 1848, and an organ chamber and north vestry were added in 1894. The building is constructed of rubble-stone and ashlar, with slate and lead roofs.

The three-stage west tower features an embattled parapet. The west doorway has moulded jambs and a two-centred head. The west window is of three cinquefoiled lights with tracery set within a pointed head and label. The second stage has windows with a single trefoiled light. The bell-chamber has a window with two trefoiled lights and tracery, and a spiral staircase projects from the south-east corner. The south elevation of the nave has four bays, diagonally buttressed at the corners, with three three-light cinquefoiled windows containing panel tracery. The chancel has two bays, with two 15th-century windows to the south and a four-light 15th-century west window. A south doorway, also of the 15th century, provides access. The north aisle has 15th-century buttresses added to 14th-century masonry, and 15th-century windows. The north-east window is of the 14th century, with three trefoiled ogee lights in a square head, while a 20th-century doorway and window are located above. The rebuilt south porch is in Perpendicular style.

Inside, the nave arcade has four bays with piers that have responds and hollow chamfers on the diagonals, rising from tall bases. The two-centred arches have wave-sunk quadrant-wave mouldings. The nave roof is a 19th-century renewal, featuring a through-purlin structure with arch bracing, short king-posts, and ashlar at the wall-plate. The chancel roof is similar, with queen-struts above high collars. A font of Purbeck marble has a square bowl with arched panels and simple foliage spandrels on top. It is supported by a central shaft and four subsidiary shafts, with moulded capping and bases, dating to the late 12th century. The pulpit, dating to around 1630, is seven-sided and features fluted Corinthian corners on corbelled-out plinths in the form of lion masks. Two tiers of decorated arcading are inlaid into each panel, incorporating egg-and-dart and rosette ornament. The upper, middle, and lower rails have various ornaments, and the pulpit stands on a fluted trumpet base and short stem. A monument in the south aisle is a late 14th-century alabaster tomb, with a chest featuring six bays, each with an angel holding a blank shield under an ogee crocketted arch. An alabaster effigy in plate armour, with the head on a helm, stands upon the chest; remains of a beast are at the feet. The stone canopy features embattled side-shafts, a septfoiled and sub-cusped four-centred arch, and a straight head. Wall monuments commemorate Peter Brice, vicar, 1740 (in the chancel); H. Saunders MA, vicar, 1673, featuring a stone and marble tablet flanked by Ionic columns, an entablature, cresting, and an achievement of arms; and Robert Conway, 1837, a marble tablet in a stone frame with a cornice. A piscina in the south aisle has moulded jambs, a trefoiled head, and a round drain, dating to the 13th century.