Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a large parish church in Axminster with Norman origins, although only a reset doorway from that period remains. The crossing piers and the western parts of the chancel date from the early 13th century. The chancel features an Early English four-light east window and two-light windows on the north and south sides. The nave has 19th-century square clerestory windows and a five-light Perpendicular early 15th-century west window above the west doorway. The south aisle of the chancel, built around 1480, includes a reset Norman doorway with two orders of nook shafts and a zigzag arch. The north aisle and porch were constructed between 1525 and 1530, featuring a quatrefoil parapet, gargoyles, and three-light windows with reticulated tracery. The two-storeyed north porch has external stairs. The south aisle, built in 1800, also has three-light windows with reticulated tracery.

The large crossing tower was rebuilt in the 13th century and restored in 1896. It has three stages, thin set-back buttresses, an embattled parapet, and two-light bell-openings with flat heads. A polygonal stair turret with battlements and a weathercock is located on the southwest corner.

Inside, there are four-bay north and south arcades from the early 15th century with foliated capitals, although the capitals of the north arcade were replaced in 1870 with carved angels. The chancel contains an early 14th-century stepped group of sedilia and a piscina. There are squints through the crossing piers and two 13th-century stone effigies in niches on the north and south walls of the chancel. Other monuments from around 1800 are by Gibbs of Axminster and Crane of London. A late 15th-century timber screen separates the chancel from the north chapel. The reading desk and octagonal pulpit date from 1633, and Jacobean carved panels have been reworked into the chair stall. A brass candelabra from 1750 is present, along with a board of charities featuring an entablature and pediment. The church has 19th-century pews, a plastered segmental vaulted nave roof, and moulded timber roofs in the chancel and aisles.