Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church largely dating from the early 14th century, with a 16th-century base to the tower and a nave roof. It is constructed of red brick and flint with limestone dressings, and has continuous thatched roofs over the nave and chancel. The church comprises a west tower, nave, south porch, and chancel.

The west tower is constructed in stepped square brick stages, likely around 1800, built atop an early 16th-century base of red brick and flint diaper work. It features pointed openings on the north and south sides, with the lower and top stages blind and filled with rendered material. Diagonally-set buttresses are on the west side. A three-light wooden west window has intersecting tracery. Part of the fourth tower stage was constructed or repaired in gault brick. The nave's eaves line is raised in red brick above the flintwork, and a two-light south-west window has Y tracery, which has been repaired. The red brick porch, probably contemporary with the tower base, has a plain arched doorway of stuccoed brick. The south gable parapet has eaves that oversail, with remains of a finial. The plain 13th-century nave doorway has a double-chamfered arch and reveal. A staged brick buttress is situated east of the porch. The south wall of the nave includes two renewed two-light windows with cusped Y tracery, with a short stone-dressed staged buttress between the openings. The south wall of the chancel has renewed two and three-light square-headed windows, a plain priest’s door with a hollow-chamfered arch, and a small high-level two-light window with cusped Y tracery. The east window is of three lights with intersecting tracery, and the parapeted east gable has stone kneelers and a cross-finial. The north wall has a raised eaves line in red brick, along with two-light Y tracery windows, which have been much repaired. There is a shallow projection for a rood stair at the junction of the nave and chancel. A plain 13th-century doorway is in the north wall of the nave, and a lancet is located at the north-west corner.

Inside, the nave roof is 15th century, with principal rafters arch-braced onto wall posts, pendant posts with carved bosses, roll-moulded purlins, and a cornice. Remains of the rood stair are at the north-east corner of the nave. An irregular arched niche is at the south-east corner. A 19th-century screen features a central cross and figures on pedestals. The tower screen has a high-level three-light intersecting window and traceried panels with texts. A stoup recess is adjacent to the south doorway. The chancel roof has been renewed. Within the south chancel wall are a piscina with a shelf and petalled bowl and triple sedilia with cusped heads and an embattled cornice, dating from the 14th century, although the heads are likely restored. The font is from the 14th century, with an octagonal bowl featuring alternating panels of shields and roses on traceried grounds, head corbels supporting the bowl, and eight engaged shafts around the stem. Fragments of medieval glass survive in the north-west chancel window.