Church Of St Mary The Virgin

An Anglican parish church of cruciform plan, built from the 12th century onwards and substantially developed through the 13th and later centuries. The building is constructed in Ham stone, coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, beneath Welsh slate roofs with stone slate base courses. The chancel, nave, and transepts are roofed in sheet lead behind parapets, while the coped east gable to the chancel is distinctive. The church was restored in 1862 by Benjamin Ferrey, and west vestries were added in 1916 by C.E. Ponting.

The plan comprises a chancel of three bays, a nave of three bays, single-bay transepts, a tower over the north transept, a north porch with parvise, and west vestries.

The chancel dates from around 1100 and features a low chamfered plinth with corner pilasters and bay buttresses to its sides. The eaves carry a corbel table supported on grotesque heads. The east window is a 15th-century four-light window with subarcuated tracery set in a hollowed recess beneath a square-stopped label. The east bay of the south side contains paired simple lancets; the centre bay has a wider single lancet and a semi-circular arched window with Celtic-style archstone below a triangular-arched doorway. A scratch dial is inscribed on the doorway jamb. The west bay contains a cusped lancet with a later rectangular window beneath. The north side has a 13th-century traceried two-light cinquefoil cusped window in its east bay, with matching single lights in the other bays; the labels are arched but cut short of their springing.

The south transept has a double plinth and eaves mould to its plain parapet. A cinquefoil cusped lancet with label lights the south gable, while four single trefoil-cusped lancets are distributed to the east and west walls.

The nave is distinguished by a corbelled battlemented parapet with end pilasters. The south side features a 15th-century four-light traceried window in a hollowed recess with square-stopped label, positioned above a blocked 12th-century doorway. The tympanum is missing, but one fishscaled and one barleysugar-twist side shaft remain, both with scalloped caps and impost blocks. The centre bay has a cinquefoil cusped lancet with headstop label, and a small 12th-century window with herringbone ornament to its archstone. The west window is five-light with reticulated tracery under a headstop label. The north wall displays a cinquefoil cusped lancet and a small 12th-century window carved with an image of St George and the dragon on its archstone. Below this is a 13th-century canopy with a cross.

The north porch and parvise are accessed through a pointed arched outer doorway with label. A trefoil cusped statue niche in a square recess sits above. The interior has a quadripartite vault and a 12th-century doorway with a panelled octagonal side shaft and a circular fishscale side shaft, both with debased Ionic capitals supporting a tympanum carved with zodiac signs under a roll mould. Early ledged and boarded doors remain. Above is a three-light reticulated tracery window without label, with a stairlight to the right. The west wall carries a stone-slate-roofed projection for the stairway, two cusped lancets, and two rectangular recesses.

The tower comprises three stages with string courses. The top stage has gargoyles and battlemented parapets. A projection with rectangular windows faces east. The lowest stage has a three-light 15th-century traceried window to the north and a slim rectangular window to the west stage. The top stage features pairs of lancets with roll-moulded jambs and double-arched labels stopped short of their springing.

Internally, the chancel has a 20th-century ceiling by McGregor. Rere-arches run to all but the east window; the eastern side windows have side shafts and trefoil arches. The 12th-century chancel arch displays offsets and roll mouldings enriched with billet, chevron, and dogtooth ornament on the nave side. The main shafts are plain, with slots for a dividing partition. The chevron and fishscale side shafts have debased Ionic capitals, probably recut. Squints open to both sides.

The north transept has a quadripartite vault on carved corbels. A reused 15th-century stone screen and 15th-century stone altar are present.

The south transept has a 19th-century panelled ceiling with rere-arches to its side windows, from which carved heads project. An angled cinquefoil cusped piscina is set into the wall.

The nave ceiling is largely 16th-century work with moulded rib and panel decoration and leaf bosses. Doorways to the rood loft are visible.

The church contains notable fittings including a 17th-century altar table, Laudian altar rails, an early 17th-century octagonal panelled pulpit, a circular tub font with rings of cable ornament, and a 13th-century water stoup to the jamb of the south transept arch. Some pews retain early bench ends.

Memorials include an effigy in the chancel's north wall of Thomas Strode (died 1595), a stone tablet in the east wall to John Strode (died 1725), and an effigy in the south transept of 14th-century Reginald de Moncketan. A 19th-century painting occupies the tympanum over the north door, and traces of wall paintings appear at higher levels in various parts of the nave. The east window retains medieval stained glass in its tracery, with a war memorial window by Bell set below.