Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a redundant parish church dating to 1875, designed by J.L. Pearson for the Fowle family. It is constructed of knapped flint with brick strings and dressings, and has tiled roofs. The church comprises a nave with aisles, a south-west porch, a chancel with a tall vestry set at a right angle on the north side, and a tower with a spire at the east end of the south aisle. The gabled porch has a stone inner chamfered order on impost columns and a hoodmould. Short lancet windows are present to the aisles, and similar lancets to the chancel, all with inner stone frames. The east and west windows have triple equal lancets; the west window also features a quatrefoil. A flush brick mid-wall band and chequer pattern are positioned above a higher string. The unbuttressed tower consists of three stages and features tall, twin bell openings in stepped brick reveals. A pyramidal spire sits atop a slight corbel table. The interior entrance door is studded. Inside, the brickwork is exposed with blue brick patterning. The nave and chancel are unified, separated by brick transverse pointed arches resting on varied stone corbels, with these arches continued as lower arches over the aisles. There is an arcade of two bays to the narrow aisles, a single bay to the chancel, and blind arcades to the sanctuary. The roof has open trussed rafters, with braces to lower arcade plates carried on the transverse arches; it also has high collars. Windows have wide brick embrasures and rere-arches. The chancel floor is raised and paved with encaustic tiles, with three steps leading to the altar table. Stone benches form a sedilia and attached vessel table. A carved Portland stone reredos depicting Christ and the Evangelists is present, with quatrefoils below. The vestry has a north window and an external door, along with two vestment cupboards. Fittings include a font, octagonal and resting on small attached shafts; a stone pulpit with bold panelling and steps with a parapet; readers' desks; choir stalls; and contemporary nave pews. The bells were removed to St Nicholas, Upper Chute. The east window is by Clayton and Bell, dating to 1914, and the west windows, also from 1914, are in a different style. Monuments are located at the west end, including a gilded slate lozenge tablet commemorating Capt Frank G. Fowle, who died in 1942. This is an important and unaltered building by an eminent 19th-century architect.