Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, significantly restored and partly rebuilt in 1867-8 by Arthur Blomfield. The tower was entirely rebuilt between 1907 and 1908 by J. Oldrid Scott. The church is constructed of flint with limestone dressings, with tiled roofs to the nave and chancel and lead roofs to the aisles.

The west tower is in three stages and features diagonal buttresses, a chequered parapet and an octagonal spire with lucarnes. It has elaborate three-light traceried openings to the bell-chamber, with cusped lights below. The west face has a two-light traceried window and doorway. The nave has a five-bay clerestory with 19th-century cusped round windows. The aisles have moulded parapets. The south aisle has two three-light windows to the south, the left being cusped, and the right with grouped lancets. An eastern two-light window with Y tracery is also present. The south doorway is moulded and includes one shaft to each jamb, leading to a 19th-century gabled porch. The north aisle was rebuilt in the 19th century, featuring traceried windows, two in decorated style to the right and two perpendicular to the left. A re-sited moulded doorway is also present. The chancel has a moulded sill course and two-light traceried windows: one to the north and two to the south, the left window being situated above a small blocked rectangular opening with a chamfered surround. A moulded south doorway and a 19th-century three-light traceried window to the east complete the chancel’s exterior.

The interior includes a tall, narrow 19th-century arch to the tower. The nave features a seven-bay arcade, with the western arches resting on quatrefoil piers and responds, while the eastern arches were inserted in the 19th century and have circular piers. Other piers are octagonal. The south aisle retains late 13th and early 14th century details, including an eastern window with a moulded arch on shafts and a hoodmould with carved head stops, a very fine south-eastern window with moulded arches on attached shafts and a matching inner screen, a sedile and piscina with cusped ogee canopies on shafts, and four cusped ogee tomb recesses. The chancel arch is completely restored, and most of the chancel has matching restoration. The north-east window retains a late 13th-century moulded arch on shafts, along with a trefoil piscina. Roods are present throughout the building. Notable fittings include a fine early 17th century hexagonal pulpit with arcaded panels, and a late 16th century chest with inlaid panels and strapwork frieze. Other fittings and stained glass are 19th-century. An east window is by Kempe and the tower was completed in 1909. A marble tablet in the chancel commemorates John and Rebecca Grace (1764 and 1770).