Church Of The Blessed Virgin Mary

The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an Anglican parish church, largely dating to the 12th or 13th centuries, with subsequent alterations. It is constructed of local stone rubble, incorporating some grey lias stone, and has stone dressings. The roof is plain clay tile with coped gables and bands of scalloped tiles to the chancel. The building comprises a single-bay chancel and a three-bay nave, with a north and south porch, and a west tower.

The chancel is plain, with a cill-high plinth. The east window is a 3-light window of the 15th century with traceried design, set within a hollowed recess and a square-stopped arched label. A likely 19th-century 2-light window, in a moulded reveal is set to the north. The south side has two 2-light windows with plain arched labels, and a small, pointed-arched doorway between them. The nave continues in a similar style with buttresses at the west end corners. Two late 15th-century 2-light windows with flat arches, cinquefoil cusped ogee-head lights, and quatrefoil spandrels, sit beneath deep square labels with shield stops on the south side. One similar window appears on the north side, west of the porch, with a 19th-century reconstruction of a 13th-century plate-traceried window to the east.

The simple south porch has a pointed-arched doorway that is now largely blocked; a small 20th-century window has been inserted. The north porch has a chamfered segmental-pointed outer arch, and a semi-circular vaulted ribbed ceiling. Stone bench seats are present, and the inner archway, likely from the 12th or 13th century, is stilted segmental with chevron decoration. The side shafts are octagonal in plan, with one cushion and one scallop capital.

The two-stage west tower has a plinth, angled corner buttresses, string courses, corner gargoyles at the top, and a battlemented parapet. A 4-centre-arched west doorway sits within a rectangular recess, featuring quatrefoil panel spandrils and a deep square label. Above the doorway is a 3-light window with simple 16th or 17th-century tracery, set in a hollowed recess with a label. The first stage is otherwise plain. A small rectangular window is present below the traceried window on the west face; another small rectangular window is situated on the north-east corner as a stair turret extending above the tower height, topped with a weathervane dated 1867.

The interior is inaccessible but reportedly contains an altered chancel arch with chevron decoration and two blocked recesses for side altars. Decorated-period inner shafts and rere-arches are visible to the chancel windows, with a cinquefoil rere-arch to the north-east nave window. Fittings include an early 17th-century pulpit and a 15th-century octagonal font. Within the north wall of the nave are two early 14th-century tomb recesses; one contains the effigy of a lady dating from around 1300, and the other a knight of approximately 1380.