Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is an Anglican parish church dating to the 13th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, and a Victorian restoration in the mid-19th century. The building is constructed of coursed rubble with slate roofs, coped verges, finials, and freestone dressings. It comprises a nave, a south porch, a chancel, and a west tower. The architecture is predominantly Decorated and Perpendicular in style.

The low, unbuttressed two-stage tower has an embattled parapet, gargoyles, corner pinnacles and two-light bell-chamber windows with louvres and labels. The west window is a three-light Early English design with three stepped lancet lights, featuring a cinquefoil interior. A semi-circular headed doorway, dating from the 17th century, provides access to the west, and a studded door is set within.

The nave consists of two bays and features two and three-light square-headed windows, with some of the western windows positioned high up to provide light to a gallery. A gabled south porch features a scratch dial, with a restored Norman outer doorway and a 14th-century inner doorway with a carved surround and a heavily-traceried door. The two-bay chancel has two-light square-headed and pointed-headed windows to the north and south. A priest's door is set within a chamfered frame to the south, complete with good iron strap hinges, believed to be from the 13th century. An east window is a three-light design. Decorative consecration crosses from the 19th century appear on the exterior.

The interior has plastered walls and flagstone and encaustic tile floors. The nave and chancel are roofed with 15th and 16th century wagon roofs with thin ribs. A 14th-century chancel arch features polygonal piers on either side, alongside a 13th-century piscina. The chancel windows incorporate moulded rere-arches, and the nave features ornamental plasterwork to the heads of the inner window reveals. A restored Norman font with cable banding and a 19th-century cover is located within. The Jacobean pulpit is constructed from re-used Perpendicular panels and inscribed with "QUI EX DEO EST VERBA". Other furnishings include a 17th-century chest, an altar table and coffin stools, alongside a painted Apostles Creed on the north wall of the nave and a partly obscured picture behind the gallery. There is a set of pews with carved ends, believed to date from around 1500, and remains of a rood screen incorporated into a reading desk. A squint is also present.

An 18th-century western gallery has fielded panels and a screen with turned balusters separating the nave from the tower. Paired panelled doors lead underneath the gallery, and a 17th or 18th-century staircase provides access. 18th-century coat-pegs are affixed to the south wall of the nave and Royal arms are displayed. A full-sized recumbent effigy of Lady Elenor de Beauchamp, dating from around 1375 and depicting her in costume with an elaborate head-dress, is located in the chancel. Various 18th and 19th-century wall monuments are also present. A good organ from around 1800 was built by James Davis, alongside 19th-century altar rails and a substantial stone reredos. Remnants of medieval glass have been re-set into the north-west and south-west chancel windows, alongside two late 16th-century panels of Flemish glass, with 16th and 17th century stained glass in the north-east, south-east, and east windows.