Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is an Anglican parish church dating back to the 17th century, with a restoration carried out in 1866 by T. H. Wyatt. It is constructed of dressed limestone and has tiled roofs. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north and south transepts, a north organ chamber, and a west tower, with a south porch. A 19th-century lean-to porch features a chamfered pointed doorway, alongside a 17th-century square-headed window. The south transept is distinguished by diagonal buttresses and a 2-light Perpendicular-style window with foliated terminals to the hoodmould. The chancel’s south side has a lancet and a lean-to 19th-century vestry with a shouldered chamfered doorway and lancet window. The east end features three stepped lancets with a continuous hoodmould and foliated terminals. The north organ chamber has three lancets and a trefoil window, while the north transept displays a 3-light Perpendicular-style window with a hoodmould. The north side of the nave incorporates two 19th-century square-headed windows. All roof verges are coped and topped with cross finials. The west tower, dating to the 17th century, is three-stage and features diagonal buttresses. It has square-headed windows on the north side, a 2-light pointed window on the west side, a single square-headed window and a 2-light round-arched window to the bell-stage, and similar windows on the south side, with a three-sided stair turret and a battlemented parapet with pinnacles. Inside, a chamfered pointed doorway with an ornamented 19th-century door opens to the nave, which has an arch-braced collar truss roof and stone floors. A double-chamfered arch, supported by tassel-carved corbels, leads to the tower, with a chamfered Tudor-arched doorway providing access to the tower stairs. A 12th-century font bowl sits on a cylindrical base at the base of the tower. The north transept is accessed via a 19th-century round arch on half-shafts, and the south transept through a pointed arch with continuous moulding; both transepts have exposed wagon roofs. A restored chancel arch, with hollow and double-ogee chamfered details on 19th-century foliated corbels, leads to the chancel, which has an arch-braced collar roof, a polychrome tiled floor, a pointed doorway to the vestry, and a lancet window now incorporated into the interior wall. A 19th-century piscina is located on the north wall. An open traceried wooden partition separates the north-east chapel from the chancel. The church also contains 1860s pews, a pulpit, and choir stalls. A significant collection of 17th- and 18th-century wall tablets is located in the south transept, including examples by Rysbrack and F. Brown of Salisbury, and a recumbent late 14th-century knight with angels and a dog in the south transept wall. A good collection of glass dating to 1881 is found in the west window.