Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a small Anglican church with a Norman foundation, likely built on a Saxon site. It was extended around 1225 and in 1361 by Thomas Lord Berkeley, and restored in the mid-19th century, probably by Lewis Vulliamy, and again in the late 19th century. The church is constructed of random coursed rubble stone, with a roughcast faced tower, and has a stone slate roof with coped east verges, a saddlestone, and cross finials.

The west tower has two stages, with a Perpendicular upper stage, an embattled parapet with crocketed corner pinnacles, and two-light belfry louvres on each face. A pointed arch doorway with a hoodmould featuring a pre-Conquest sculpture of a figure of Christ is on the south side. The south aisle was added, probably in the 13th century, and features a parapet wall with two large 19th-century Perpendicular four-light windows. A projecting gabled porch is flanked by the windows and has a sundial below a trefoil saddlestone and elaborate cross finial. A Norman inner doorway with a hoodmould carved with inverted crockets and jamb shafts with crocket capitals is also present. The 14th-century chancel has two Decorated two-light windows on the south side, flanking an ogee-headed priest’s door with a hoodmould, and a three-light east window. Small Norman and Early English lancets are on the north side. The Berkeley Chapel is also of the 14th century.

Inside, the 3-bay nave has a pointed arcade on the south side with cylindrical piers, trumpet scallop capitals, waterholding bases, and a complex roof design by Vulliamy. Remains of a rood stair and upper archway are behind a Tudor carved stone pulpit; the chancel screen is largely original 15th-century timber, restored in the 19th century. An unusual squint passage from the north chapel into the chancel comprises three bays, with a moulded ridge beam, arched principals, and carved ridge bosses. A 13th-century tomb recess is located in the lower section of the south aisle wall, containing a medieval octagonal font that was previously ornamented but altered by Vulliamy. Several late 17th/early 18th century stone wall monuments are on the west wall, and a large monument to William Tugwell (1763) is in the south aisle.