Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating back to the 13th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 14th and 16th centuries. The chancel was rebuilt in 1690. The church is constructed of coursed squared ironstone and coursed ironstone rubble, with some limestone dressings, and has lead roofs. It comprises a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a west tower.

The east window features three lights with intersecting tracery. The north side of the chancel contains a four-light mullion window with a hood-mould to the east, and a similar two-light window to the west. The south side incorporates a two-light mullion window situated above a blocked priest’s door, marked by a datestone inscribed DK/1690. To the west of this is a straight-headed, low side window with a hood-mould. The north aisle has two-light mullion windows and a reused pointed double-chamfered archway with label stops. The west window is blocked, except for a single light. The south aisle has a three-light east window with intersecting tracery, a three-light straight-headed window to the east of the porch, a two-light pointed window to the west, and a small, round-arched west window. The south porch has a double-chamfered door with a hood-mould, a small two-light pointed arch east window, a chamfered plinth, a coped gable, and a tile roof. A moulded pointed doorway with a hood-mould and label stops is on the south side. The clerestory consists of four three-light straight-headed windows on both the north and south sides, all with hood-moulds. Plain parapets top the chancel, nave, and aisles.

The three-stage west tower has a two-light Decorated west window with a hood-mould and label stops. Above this is a niche with a hodding ogee-head, crocketted gable, and pinnacles. The belfry features two-light windows with cusped Y-tracery and hood-moulds with label stops. The tower also has a chamfered plinth, string courses, diagonal buttresses to the south-east and south-west corners, side buttresses to the north-east and north-west angles, and a plain parapet with a corbel table.

Inside, the chancel east window has stained glass dating from 1866. The side windows contain 16th and 17th century painted glass squares, roundels of continental origin, and armorial panels. A late 18th or early 19th century Gothick communion table, rails, and clergy chairs are present, alongside a stone and marble pavement. The nave features a late medieval tie-beam roof and three-bay arcades with double-chamfered arches, round columns, and octagonal capitals. The floor is of stone with inset black marble tomb slabs and two 16th-century Purbeck marble slabs with brasses. Late 18th-century box pews incorporating 16th-century linenfold and tracery panels are also present, alongside panels with Renaissance profile heads and figurative scenes. A 16th-century style hall pew with tracery panels and linenfold is in the south aisle. The aisle windows contain 16th-century painted glass panels. An early 19th-century chamber organ sits on Greek Doric columns. In the north-west aisle window is a painted wood Commandments designed to resemble an open bible. The church also holds hatchments and painted Hanoverian Royal Arms. A remarkable collection of brasses, wall monuments, and a tomb chest with effigies commemorating members of the Knightley family (dating from the 16th to 19th centuries) are also of note.