Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church with a west tower possibly dating from the 14th century, a 15th-century arcade, and nave and chancel largely rebuilt in 1882 and 1887. The building is constructed of local stone rubble with snecked stone to the chancel and nave, beneath a slate roof.

The plan comprises a west tower, a three-bay nave with a south aisle (reducing to one bay toward the chancel), and a south porch. Most architectural details are Perpendicular in style. The 19th-century fenestration probably copies medieval originals.

The chancel features crested ridge tiles and a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular east window with a hoodmould and carved label stops. Two three-light Tudor arched windows with uncusped heads, saddle bars and stanchions occupy the south elevation east of the porch, probably dating to the early 16th century. A similar two-light window lies to the west of the porch, with its hoodmould cut off by the wall plate. A moulded priest's doorway to the east has a depressed segmental arch and probably 16th-century panelled door.

The west window is probably 14th-century, featuring two lights with tracery. The slim, unbuttressed and battlemented west tower has an asymmetrical three-sided projecting north-east stair turret. A small decayed medieval west doorway probably dates to the 16th century, with a two-light 14th-century Decorated west window whose tracery is largely renewed.

The south porch has a moulded rounded medieval outer doorway with a hoodmould and carved label stops, with remnants of an angel corbel at the arch apex. The porch interior contains a probably early 19th-century ceiled wagon roof with moulded ribs. The moulded three-centred 15th-century inner doorway shows decayed stops.

The interior has plastered walls except for the north wall. A tall chamfered tower arch features pyramid stops. The nave roof is a ceiled wagon similar to the porch. The chancel has a lower ceiled wagon roof of 19th-century date with moulded ribs and carved bosses. A medieval ceiled wagon roof of 15th or 16th-century date covers the aisle, with carved bosses and braces projecting out of the plaster above the moulded wall plate.

The three-bay aisle features moulded Tudor arches with piers having corner shafts and good capitals recut in the 1880s.

Medieval fittings include a re-sited rood screen, probably of early 16th-century date, with very unusual design featuring very tall square-headed openings with pierced spandrels. The frieze and cresting survive to the nave only. The screen has been truncated at the base, and the present pulpit has been made up from another bay of the same design. An unusual circa early 16th-century tower screen features square-headed openings and recessed tracery panels flush on the surface, with wainscoting of chamfered muntins and crocketted ogee canopies. A plain octagonal font on a chamfered stem with bar stops is also present.

19th-century fittings include tiling, a late 19th-century blind traceried dado, and plain choir stalls and benches.

Stained glass includes medieval fragments, notably late 15th-century head tracery figures in the east window of the south aisle. Medieval fragments fill the west window of the aisle, assembled from Carhais in France by Drake of Exeter in 1887, accompanied by a sketch by Drake of the original design. The east window is probably by Burlisson and Grylls, erected in 1906.

Monuments include a wall monument to members of the Southcott family with memorial dates of 1630 and 1633, featuring Doric columns and a swan-necked pediment surrounding a kneeling figure at a prayer desk with painted portraits in roundels. A good ledger stone in the east end of the south aisle commemorates George Southcott, died 1654 aged 15, with good cutting, armorial bearings and a memorable verse: "Under this tombstone know there lies / A dainty youth of richest price / sone gropt by death while under age / through feavers violence and rage / Earth keeps his body in restraint / But heaven ownes him for a saint /".