Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

An Anglican parish church of mixed date from the 12th to 17th centuries, with major restoration in 1861 by architect William Slater. Built of flint and limestone with a tiled roof.

The church comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel, a south chapel, a north tower, and a south porch. The south porch is gabled and dates to the 16th century, formerly two-storey, with a moulded Tudor-arched doorway beneath a square hoodmould. It has diagonal buttresses, a two-light cusped mullioned window with hoodmould above, and a coped verge with cross finial. Cusped windows flank the sides.

The south aisle features a pair of 14th-century two-light ogee windows on either side of the porch, with a plain parapet and saddleback coping to the lean-to roof. The south chapel has a particularly fine three-light 14th-century window with reticulated tracery and a pointed hoodmould, beneath a low-pitched roof with coping and gargoyles. The nave clerestory contains three 16th-century two-light cusped windows and a moulded stone eaves cornice with rosettes.

The south side of the chancel has an ovolo-moulded doorway, a two-light Perpendicular window to the left, and a two-light 19th-century window to the right. The east end displays a large 19th-century four-light Decorated-style window with a trefoiled niche below, probably reset. The north side has a chamfered lancet and a 19th-century two-light window. The north aisle contains a two-light 16th-century window with hoodmould to the east, two cusped lancets to the north, and a parapet. The nave clerestory has two two-light 16th-century windows on this side.

The two-stage north tower has angle buttresses and a 14th-century two-light pointed window to the first stage. An offset string course leads to the bell stage, which features an ogee lancet and 17th-century round-arched louvred windows. The west side has a roll-moulded pointed doorway, and the south side bears a datestone of 1675. A battlemented parapet with corner pinnacles crowns the tower. The west end of the nave has a 12th-century clasping buttress to the north, a 19th-century Decorated-style window, and a cusped lancet to the west on the south aisle.

Interior features include a porch with an integral moulded stone seat on the west side and a Medieval tomb with a cross on the east side. The upper floor has been removed, revealing a fine 12th-century roll-moulded doorway with zig-zag and nailhead ornament and attached shafts with scalloped capitals on the left. A 19th-century planked door now closes the porch. The nave has four-bay 19th-century arch-braced collar roof with tie-beams, rendered walls, and a tiled floor. A particularly fine four-bay 12th-century south arcade features cylindrical piers with enriched multi-scalloped capitals and square abaci, round arches decorated with nailhead or pellet ornament, and red painted decoration to the soffits. A 19th-century Perpendicular-style screen adjoins the tower arch, which has triple chamfered moulding with carved head abaci. The north chapel has a triple-chamfered pointed arch.

The south chapel, probably 14th-century, contains an ogee cusped piscina and ogee niche over a stone coffin against the south wall. The chancel arch features double chamfering on cylindrical corbels and a two-bay 19th-century scissor-rafter roof with crown post on the tie-beam. A fine 14th-century three-seat sedilia and piscina with cusped ogee arches and carved finials ornament the south wall of the chancel. The 12th-century font, with scalloped cylindrical form, stands in the south aisle. A 19th-century marble pulpit occupies the interior. Notable stained glass includes work by James Bell in the east window, Clayton and Bell (1862) in the tower, and Lavers Barraud and J.S. Beckham in the chancel. The south chapel window displays the Seymour crest. A chest tomb to Christopher Fleetwood, died 1705, is located in the chancel.