Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a parish church founded around 1230 as a cruciform building. It was substantially altered in the 14th and 15th centuries, when the central tower was rebuilt and the aisles were widened. A west porch was added in the 15th century. The entire building underwent extensive restoration in 1871 by the architect G.E. Street, who added north and south porches at this time.

The exterior is constructed of flint with Totternhoe stone dressings and has lead roofs. The aisles have plain parapets, while the rest of the building features embattled parapets. The nave has a five-bay clerestory of three-light Perpendicular windows, with an earlier three-light traceried window to the west. The west doorway dates to the 13th century and features a finely moulded arch on shafts with stiff leaf capitals. The west porch has a moulded four-centred arch with quatrefoil spandrels and a hoodmould, topped with a 19th-century coat-of-arms. The porch roof is vaulted and supported on moulded stone tie ribs.

The aisles contain Decorated windows: two-light windows in the west bay and three-light windows in the east bay. Central doorways with ballflower ornament lead into each aisle, with the north door being medieval.

The central tower has a small lead spire and a stair turret at its north-west corner. It rises in two stages above the nave. The lower stage features irregular round windows and lancets, while the upper stage has two-light traceried openings to the bell-chamber.

The transepts have angle buttresses. The east sides have pairs of tall lancets with later tracery. The north and south sides feature large three-light traceried windows, with two-light traceried windows to the west topped by 14th-century sexfoil round windows. The north transept also has a west door.

The chancel has two blocked lancets and a three-light Perpendicular window to the north. The south side has two similar Perpendicular windows and a small blocked door. A four-light Perpendicular window fills the east end. Above the east window are tablets dated 1260 and 1745.

Interior

The interior contains a five-bay nave arcade of 13th-century date, featuring double hollow-chamfered arches on octagonal piers with stiff-leaf capitals. Traces of 13th-century round clerestory windows survive above. Double chamfered arches connect the aisles to the transepts. The tower has triple chamfered arches on all sides, supported on chamfered piers with moulded capitals.

The transepts contain cusped piscinae. The chancel has a recess in the north wall with a cusped four-centred arch and 19th-century carved head stops, which now houses a 15th-century stone effigy of a priest.

The roofs are particularly fine and date to the 15th century. They feature moulded beams and braced tie beams on stone corbels with carved heads. Intermediate principal rafters support carved wooden angels with outspread wings at their base. The nave roof additionally has braces carved with figures of apostles. The east bay is enriched with restored carved foliage bosses.

Fittings and monuments

The church contains 28 fifteenth-century bench ends with poppyheads carved variously with faces or figures. A fifteenth-century lectern stands on a hexagonal stem with a moulded and stepped base. An early 17th-century pulpit features elaborate panels and an ornate sounding board, with a relief of the Resurrection on its rear panel. A late 17th-century chair is also present. 19th-century font and glass fittings have been added. A carved marble reredos depicting the Last Supper, now positioned in the south transept, was installed in 1896 in memory of Christopher and Charlotte Buckmaster.

Several 16th-century brasses survive in the chancel, including those to Richard Blackhed and his wife (1517), William Duncombe (1576), and John and Alice Duncombe (1594).

The north wall of the chancel holds a marble wall tablet to Henry Cooley of Seabrooke (1714), featuring scrolled pilasters, a cherub-head base, and a cornice with flaming urns flanking the coat-of-arms. A similar tablet in the south transept commemorates Deborah Neale (1714) and features scrolled urns.