Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

This church dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, with the tower rebuilt in 1709 and the building substantially restored in 1880 by the office of E.F. Law. It is constructed of uncoursed ironstone rubble, ironstone ashlar and coursed squared ironstone with limestone and sandstone dressings, with lead and copper roofs.

The building comprises a chancel, organ chamber, nave, north and south aisles, and a west tower.

The chancel contains an east window of three lights with cusped intersecting tracery, a two-light north window with Y-tracery, two similar south windows with cusped Y-tracery, and a small hollow-chamfered priest's door. The organ chamber at the north-west end of the chancel continues the north aisle and features a one-light east window and a reused two-light north window with cusped Y-tracery.

The nave is notable for an impressive clerestory with a continuous row of ten two-light Perpendicular windows with straight heads to both north and south sides, with early 18th-century lead rainwater heads and pipes. The north aisle contains a two-light Decorated window east of a blocked double-chamfered north door, and a two-light window with cusped Y-tracery to the west. The south aisle has a three-light Decorated east window and a four-light window with reticulated tracery east of the porch, with a three-light window with straight head and reticulated tracery to the west. The south door has a chamfered pointed arch.

The south porch features a diagonal buttress, one-light windows to north and south, a moulded door with four-centred head, and a stone coped gable with kneelers.

The west tower is of three stages. It has a two-light 19th-century west window, a south door with round-headed arch with imposts and keyblock, and circular windows with keyblocks. The bell chamber has coupled round-arched windows with keyblocks and flat Y-tracery. The tower has a battlemented parapet and obelisk pinnacles with ball finials and gilded weathervanes, a chamfered plinth, angle buttresses as far as the belfry stage, and limestone pilaster buttresses above.

The interior of the chancel contains a two-seat sedilia with hollow-chamfered arches and hood moulds resting on shafts with capitals, and a piscina with cusped arch on responds. An early 18th-century communion rail with turned balusters stands here, with a matching communion table in the vestry behind the organ. A double-chamfered chancel arch separates the chancel from the nave.

The nave has five-bay arcades with octagonal piers and capitals and double-chamfered arches. The capitals of half-columns at the east and west ends of the north aisle have ball-flower ornament, and the east capital contains an inset piscina with nodding ogee head. An aumbry is located at the north-east of the north aisle.

The roofing includes a 19th-century tie beam roof to the chancel and a nave roof mostly of the 19th century with moulded tie-beams, although some timbers and moulded wall plate may be original. The aisles have lean-to roofs with ties, some stop-chamfered and others moulded, probably dating from the early 16th century. Most other timbers were renewed in the 19th century.

The church contains 19th-century stained glass in the chancel, south aisle and west tower. Fifteenth-century stained glass shields with the arms of the Abbots of Evesham and Royal arms with an inscription formerly in the north clerestory are now in the north aisle window. An octagonal Jacobean pulpit is also present.