Church of St Mary the Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

An Anglican parish church, mainly dating from the 15th and 16th centuries with 19th-century restoration. Built in rubble and ashlar with freestone dressings, and roofed in tile and lead-sheeting. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a north vestry.

The west tower is Perpendicular in style and notably lofty, comprising three stages. It features set-back buttresses that terminate on the third stage as pinnacles, with a shaft clasped between the buttresses also terminating as a pinnacle. The parapet is pierced, and gargoyles decorate the structure. The bell-chamber openings are tall with double transoms and three lights, with lower halves virtually blank and upper halves containing stone quatrefoil grilles, flanked by shafts. A polygonal stair-turret rises to the north, while the south side carries two crocketted niches for statuary. The enriched west face displays a four-light window divided into two-plus-two sub-arches, a west doorway with leaf spandrels, and a string moulding with three decapitated angel figures above. A niche contains a figure with six attendant angels. A clock with Roman numerals occupies the south side, above which sits a 18th-century monument. The base of the tower features a 18th-century monument.

The four-bay nave has a clerestory with pierced parapet, pinnacles, gargoyles, and three-light windows with depressed-arch heads. The four-bay south aisle has two four-light windows with square heads to its south, a pierced parapet, buttresses, and a three-light west window with pointed-arch head. Below this window stands a 18th-century monument.

The south porch is gabled with a stone-tiled roof dated 1629. It has slender buttresses to the front, crocketted finials, a label with strapwork ornamentation, and a depressed-arch opening with foliate spandrels. Paired 18th-century panelled doors are set within. An achievement of arms with encircling text decorates the gable face, with a further similar achievement to the left of the door opening.

The four-bay north aisle features a pierced parapet, buttresses, pinnacles, and three-light windows. At its east end stands a polygonal stair-turret.

The two-bay chancel has two two-light square-headed windows to its south. The east window is 17th-century, three-light, mullioned and transomed, with traces of jambs from an earlier window visible below. A 18th-century memorial sits beneath. A large 20th-century vestry adjoins the chancel.

The interior is predominantly plastered on flagstone floors. The nave has a low-pitched 18th-century tie-beam roof, with large angel corbels from a former roof also retained. The aisles have lean-to roofs with moulded ribs and bosses; the north aisle's corbels are carved as angels. The chancel has a simple 19th-century roof. The tower interior features a fan-vault. Four-bay aisle arcades have piers of four-hollows section, with a chancel arch in conforming style and a lofty panelled tower arch.

The chancel contains a cusped 13th-century piscina, hagioscopes, and upper and lower entrances to the rood. In the north aisle near the east end are two low cusped ogee-headed recesses.

A richly carved octagonal Perpendicular font, much restored, occupies the interior. A second octagonal font, dating from the 15th century with simple quatrefoil panels, is also present. A chest is dated 1683, and Laudian altar rails remain. A 19th-century brass lectern and a good set of pews from 1960 are installed.

Many memorials are present, including medieval wall paintings now covered. Four 18th-century wall monuments are by T. King of Bath, Ford of Bath, and Reeves and Son. A 17th-century brass commemorates the Bisse family, and a 17th-century monument to the Bisse family, probably dating to around 1640, features strapwork cresting. 19th-century wall monuments are also present. An 18th-century oil painting of The Nativity hangs within, and a brass candelabra, donated in 1737, is displayed. At the east end of the south aisle is a stained glass window of around 1896 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, while the east window dates from 1930 and is by A.K. Nicholson.