Church Of The Blessed Virgin Mary

The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an Anglican parish church, dating from 1331 with alterations in the 15th century, particularly to the tower and west end. It was restored in 1861 by George Gilbert Scott. The church is constructed of coursed rubble and ashlar, with freestone dressings, slate roofs with crested ridges, and coped verges with cruciform finials. It exhibits Decorated and Perpendicular styles, with restoration in a neo-Decorated style.

The church comprises a nave, a heated north vestry, a south porch, a central tower, and a chancel. The embattled two-stage tower features two-light bell-chamber windows and gargoyles. A north stair turret rises to an octagonal upper stage with embattled details. The south side of the tower has two additional two-light windows. The nave has two and three-light windows, a five-light transomed west window, and a west door. A buttressed vestry has a two-light window. The porch is also buttressed, and the interior is benched on a flag floor, with a bifold wrought-iron gate to the outer door and paired plank doors with E-shaped hinges to the inner door. The two-bay chancel has two-light windows and a plain three-light east window, with a priest's door displaying restored 15th-century hinges.

The interior is plastered and has tile floors, with marble around the altar. Double-chamfered arches are carried through to the piers of the tower without interruption. The nave retains a restored 15th-century wagon roof, while the tower features a 19th-century coffered ceiling. The chancel has a 19th-century wagon roof. Two 14th/15th-century piscine are located in the nave. Other furnishings include a 15th-century stone pulpit, a 14th/15th-century style font, and a detached section of a 17th-century altar rail with turned balusters, alongside a Jacobean table in the vestry.

There are two notable 17th-century wall monuments commemorating members of the Bull family of Shapwick Manor. One monument, to Jane Bull (1657), features a marble surround, open segmental pediment with a family achievement, and flanking cherubs. The other, to Henry Bull (1691), has a broken segmental pediment with an achievement and flanking pilasters with emblems of mortality. Several 18th-century monuments exist, including one dedicated to Thomas Strangways (1766) with an urn finial. Nine principal 19th-century monuments are also present. The remaining fittings date to the 19th century and include pews, choir stalls, a lectern, an altar rail, ornamental oil lamps on sconces, and decalogue plaques flanking the tower arch. An achievement on a canvas plaque is situated in the nave. The chancel contains substantial mid/late 19th-century stained glass.