Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is an Anglican parish church dating from 1866, designed by Pownall and Young. It is constructed of flint with brick lacings and dressings, featuring Bath stone dressings to the windows, door, and buttresses, and has a tiled roof. The church comprises a nave and an apsidal chancel, with a porch in the southwest corner and a north organ chamber attached to a lean-to vestry on the west face. A bellcote sits atop the west end of the nave. The windows are paired lancets, set within bays defined by pilasters rising from extended stone sills to a brick corbel table. A gable is positioned in the transept, featuring a sexfoil wheel window. Buttresses define the transept gables, while pilasters run around the apse. A central, high west buttress is flanked by two-light windows. The porch has a chamfered arch on brick piers, with raking corner buttresses and trefoiled side lights. The chancel roof is apsidal, topped with an iron cross. A timber-framed belltower with a tile-hung skirt and clock is present, topped with a pyramidal spire constructed of alternating bands of plain and fish-tailed tiles. The inner porch door is boarded with ironwork fittings, set within a moulded arch.

The interior of the nave is plastered, featuring rere-arches to the lancets and crown post trusses with two tiers of purlins and open rafters. A chancel arch rests upon corbels with a hoodmould, and there is an arched opening to the vestry. The chancel is raised three steps, tiled and barrel vaulted, with a single arch to the organ chamber and an arch to the apse, featuring a painted half-dome. Aumbry, dating from the 13th to 14th centuries, is located on the north side, square in shape, with a moulded surround and medieval encaustic tiles on the back wall. A piscina is positioned to the south, also medieval and lined with medieval tiles, though the cantilever bowl is broken. A font, likely from the 12th century and originally featuring cable moulding around the base, has been reset in the 19th century and sits upon eight squat marble columns with waterleaf capitals. A low stone screen leads into a stone pulpit with a stone bookrest. The lectern is a reset 12th-century column with a waterleaf capital and leaf base. The 1874 reredos is constructed of limestone, adorned with an Agnus Dei and cross within a crocketed gable, resting upon marble columns. Pine choir stalls and bench pews are present in the nave. Furnishings include a 17th-century communion table, a 17th-century chest with lightly carved arches, and a 17th-century bible box with carved front, containing an 1812 bible with Knight’s Commentaries. There is also an 18th-century table with a drawer. Carpets in the nave include a 19th-century double medallion carpet with three stripes, likely Shurvan; a Caucasian carpet with four stripes and a central medallion of a hooked design behind the altar; a cropped Shirgaz in the vestry; and a second Caucasian carpet in poor condition in the organ chamber. Two painted limestone commandment tablets with gilded lettering, dating from the 19th century, are also present. Six windows are by Morris & Co. from 1916-17, one depicting a portrait.