Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Anglican parish church of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, restored in 1861 by Colson. Built of flint with dispersed greensand and some sarsen. The west tower is rendered with limestone buttresses and dressings; the main roofs are slate but the chancel is tiled. The church comprises a nave with a late 13th-century chancel, north and south aisles, and a 15th-century south porch.

The aisles have 19th-century square-headed windows, and the clerestorey of the nave has 19th-century varied cinquefoiled lights. The chancel has Y-tracery windows, 2-light openings to the sides, and a tall 3-light window to the east. A blocked late 13th-century window survives at the east end of the south side, and there is a south priest's door. The tower is of three stages with angle buttresses, a four-centred west door with quatrefoils in the spandrels and shields to the dropped ends of the label, a three-light window with panelled tracery over, and three-light louvred openings to the bell stage. The parapet is crenellated with crowned pinnacles. The porch has an outer door framed in small buttresses and a crenellated string, with an inscribed stone in the low-pitched gable. The inner door is four-centred with casement mouldings and a square head, with a corbel above. Two mass dials are incised on the south-east nave quoins, one of which is square.

The interior reveals a 12th-century nave, probably originally shorter, and chancel. The north aisle was added in the late 12th century, the nave lengthened and the south aisle added in the early 13th century, with the chancel rebuilt in the late 13th century. The blank north wall of the original extension was later opened up with a wide arch in the 14th century to extend the aisle. The north arcade has two bays with double-chamfered pointed arches on round columns with late 12th-century octagonal abaci. The south arcade has four bays of early 13th-century date, with double-chamfered arches on round columns and round abaci. The north wall has an external corbel table under the eaves of the aisle. The south wall was probably rebuilt when the aisle was added, and both walls were raised in the 18th century to provide a clerestorey, which was remodelled in the 19th century. The roof of the nave, installed in the 19th century, is of six bays with king post and strut trusses. The tower arch is narrow and tall. A 19th-century chancel arch, executed in classic 13th-century style, has Purbeck nook shafts. The north aisle has a western lancet window and a north door. Both aisles have 19th-century roofs. The chancel is wide with a 19th-century open timber roof with tie-beam truss. There is no piscina or aumbrey.

Fittings include a 19th-century Bath stone font at the west end, octagonal in plan. The pulpit, choir stalls and communion rail are all 19th-century.

Monuments in the chancel, south side, include a large painted stone monument of 1646 with two bays of Corinthian columns supporting an entablature and coffered barrel vault, an attic storey of lesser Corinthian columns, and a crest bearing mantled arms. The sarcophagus contains effigies of Thomas Pile de Bufton and his wife Elizabeth, in dress armour and ruffs, with two kneeling male offspring at the side. The west bay contains kneeling life-size figures of Sir Gabriel Pile and his wife Anne Porter, dating to around 1620. On the north side is a monument carried on an arch across the corner of the chancel, with a sarcophagus, bust on pedestal, and inscription to Edward Richards of Compton, Berkshire, who died in 1728. A recessed wall monument features an aedicule of coloured marbles with an arch, broken pediment, shield and death's head, and an inscription to Gertrude Pile, who died in 1630, with a kneeling figure in front of a reading desk. There are also two floor slabs to the Richards family of 'Insula Victis' from 1677 and two others. In the chancel is an alabaster monument on black marble to Herbert Gibson, who died in 1920, and family. The nave contains a white marble wall tablet on grey to Harriet Sheppard, who died in 1845, and a similar tablet to William Sheppard, who died in 1838, and others. In the north aisle is a painted limestone wall monument with moulded frame and long inscription to Elizabeth Parsons and Ann, who died in 1620. A brass to Joan Darell of 1495 survives below the carpet, though her spouse's brass has been removed.

The east window was made by H. Hughes in 1865. The east window of the north aisle is signed HW.