Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is an Anglican parish church with a history spanning the 12th, 13th, 15th centuries, and including some 19th-century restoration work, likely overseen by the office of Sir George Gilbert Scott. The church is constructed of coursed and squared rubble with some ashlar, featuring embattled parapets and roofs covered in stone tiles and lead sheeting. It consists of a clerestoried nave, a south aisle, a south porch, a chancel with a south chapel, a north vestry, and a west tower.

The overall architectural style is predominantly Perpendicular, though remnants of earlier designs remain. The tower stands as a fine three-stage structure with diagonal buttresses, an embattled parapet, corner pinnacles, a stair turret, single bell-chamber windows with stone grilles to the top stage, and tall, double windows with blind tracery on the stage below. A 3-light west window and a west door complete the tower's exterior. The nave has four bays with 2-light windows; one window in the north-west corner dates to the 1340s, while the rest are Perpendicular. The aisle-cum-chapel comprises six bays with 2-light windows, initially added in the 13th century but with 15th-century fenestration.

The south porch, built in 1869, is in an Early English style. It features an Early English inner doorway with Purbeck shafts and a 15th-century door. The chancel has a 3-light east window. The interior is plastered and sits on flagstone floors. The nave has a 19th-century roof supported by large 15th-century corbels carved as angels; the aisle roof has ribs and bosses on small allegorical corbels. The tower's design includes springers for a vault. A 19th-century ceiling with ribs and bosses and a wagon roof characterize the chancel. A Norman chancel arch is present, alongside an Early English 4-bay arcade to the south aisle. A 2-bay arcade connects the chancel to the south chapel, with a centre pier featuring detached Purbeck shafts. A piscina is located on the east respond. Aisle and chapel windows have shafted rere-arches. Upper and lower entrances to the rood are also present, along with an aumbry.

The church’s furnishings include a Norman tub font, a 16th-century chest, 17th-century pews, a pair of coffin stools, a 19th-century pulpit, choir stalls, chair, and altar rails. An organ, dated 1869 and made by Vowles of Bristol, is also in the church. Monuments are placed on the floor and walls, with examples dating from the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. A charity plaque is located under the tower. Five early bells are housed within the tower. The chancel window contains simple 19th-century stained glass, while a chapel window dated 1937 was designed by A. K. Nicholson of London. A Jacobean cover adorns the font, and a late 16th-century painted text is visible on a nave wall.