Church Of Saint Mary

The Church of St Mary is a church with origins in the 14th century, but largely rebuilt in the 15th and 19th centuries. It is constructed of varied quality Ham stone ashlar, with a rubble plinth to the South wall of the nave, and has Welsh slate roofs with stone slate base courses to the chancel. The building comprises a west tower, a North East vestry, a South porch, a nave that is double width and largely 19th century, probably encompassing a former North aisle, and a two-bay chancel.

The chancel has a 14th-century character, with full-height buttresses angled to the corners, a three-light, trefoil-cusped arched East window with 14th-century tracery, and two-light matching windows in the South wall. Each of these windows has double quatrefoil panels under each light and a moulded arched doorway between them. A flat-headed window with two four-centred arched lights is set in the North wall. All chancel windows lack labels. The North East vestry, designed to match the chancel, was built in the 19th century. The nave is entirely 19th century, with two three-light windows with composite "Y" tracery to the North wall, a similar but smaller window to the West end above a plain moulded pointed arched doorway, and three narrower windows in the South wall – the central window having been shortened to fit the porch. The South porch is simple, and possibly 14th century, with a chamfered pointed arch doorway and a double-chamfered inner door. It contains bench seats, and has a stone barrel vault ceiling covered externally with stone slabs.

The three-stage tower, dating from the 14th or 15th century, features angled corner buttresses that are two stories high, with an octagonal stair turret to the South West corner. String courses define the stages, and the top has battlemented parapets with prominent corner gargoyles. The first stage has a moulded pointed arched doorway with a three-cinquefoil-headed light window with 15th-century tracery set in a hollowed recess. The second stage has clock faces to the North and West sides, and single light, trefoil-headed windows in hollowed rectangular recesses. The third stage has two-light, trefoil-cusped traceried windows in deep hollowed recesses, with pierced stone baffles to the South and West, the others being wooden.

Inside, the chancel has a plaster barrel vault ceiling with a stone springing course, and all wall plaster has been stripped. Rere-arches are present to all pointed windows. A wide, tall, hollow-chamfered chancel arch leads to a late 19th-century arch into the vestry/organ chamber. A plain sedilia forming the South East window cill and a trefoil-cusped ogee head piscina are located nearby. In the nave is a 16th-century four linenfold panel chest near the pulpit and an octagonal font on a circular base with a water-holding moulding, possibly of the 13th century. All but the East window contain mid-20th-century stained glass by Gunther Anton of Stuttgart, a gift in gratitude for kindnesses received from the villagers while he was a prisoner of war.