Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating to 1875-8, designed by R.A. Waterhouse. The construction incorporated older materials, and the church is located on a sloping site running from east to west. The building is constructed of knapped flint with brick bands and stone dressings, with plain and fishscale tiles covering the roof. The layout comprises a nave with clerestory and aisles, a tall chancel with a slightly lower ridge, and south and north chapels (the north chapel serving as a vestry). A northwest tower with a porch sits to one side.

The east end of the chancel features a stone plinth and an offset below a four-light perpendicular window, topped by a kneelered gable. The chapels are set back with plinths and buttressing to the north. Reused three-light 15th-century perpendicular windows are set into the south side, while pointed, square-headed cinquefoil windows appear on the north side. The north chapel includes a reused pointed door and similar cinquefoil windows. The aisles have plinths that step down towards the west, featuring two and three-light square-headed cinquefoil windows. The clerestory includes 15th-century square-headed trefoiled two-light windows, some of which are 19th-century replacements. A wide pointed doorway is located at the west end of the south aisle, and a tower with a wide pointed north door sits at the west end of the north aisle. A half-octagonal stair turret rises to the same level, alongside similar buttresses to the west. The top stage exhibits flint and brick chequerwork, with pointed two-light openings, stone crenellations, a short octagonal tiled spire with vane, and a three-light window to the south aisle. The west end of the nave has a large five-light pointed window.

Inside the chancel, an elaborate reredos with painted panels is complemented by similar features on each side, above the panelling. Painted barrel vaulted roofs cover the chancel and the south chapel. A tall chancel arch is present, leading down six steps to the body of the church. The nave features five arcade bays with reused late 12th-century round piers, trumpet-scallop capitals, broad leaf decoration, and unusual diagonal fluting. A 12th-century Purbeck octagonal font with blank arcading is located in the north aisle. Monuments within the south chapel commemorate Dulcebella Welles (1616), featuring an alabaster frame surrounding a black inscription panel, strongly convex, with a crest and flanking pilasters. The south aisle houses tablets commemorating Jonathan Shipley (1719), Elizabeth Shipley (1796), and Amelia Shipley (1800). Monuments at the west end of the nave include a 1726 memorial to William Davies by R. Leversuch, reminiscent of the Welles monument; a 1788 memorial to Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St Asaph, by F. Nollekens, featuring a large inscription tablet supporting a grey obelisk with bust and bishop’s trophies; and a 1806 memorial to Georgiana Naylor (née Shipley) by J. Flaxman, showing an inscription panel supporting a figure of a woman seated before a squat obelisk.