Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is an Anglican parish church largely dating to the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with some 19th-century restoration. It is constructed of ham stone rubble with ashlar dressings, featuring stone slate base courses on the chancel and a sheet lead roof behind parapets to the nave. A stone slab roof covers the porch.

The church comprises a two-bay chancel and a three-bay nave, accompanied by a south porch, a north-east vestry/organ chamber, and another vestry opposite the south porch. The chancel was likely built in the late 13th century, with its east wall rebuilt in the 19th century. This east wall includes a chamfered plinth, a corbel table, and a three-light reticulated traceried window with a plain label. A two-light flat arched window with cusped lights sits on the north side, facing a probable 15th-century example on the south wall, alongside a simple cusped lancet and a blocked chamfered four-centred arched doorway. The organ chamber’s east gable features a three-light geometric traceried window.

The nave’s east wall shows indications of a higher former chancel roof. It has a chamfered plinth, a string course with gargoyles, and a low battlemented parapet. A buttress with two scratch dials is situated on the south-east corner, with paired buttresses at the west end, rising about two-thirds of the wall’s height. A square roof stair turret is present on the north-east corner. The north wall contains two two-light reticulated traceried windows with labels, while the south wall features two three-light 15th-century traceried windows set within hollowed arched recesses with simple labels. The west wall is plain and reveals the line of a formerly steeply pitched roof, culminating in a small oblong bell turret in a Brympton style. This turret has two four-centred arched openings on each face above a moulded corbel, topped with a pyramidal roof, featuring gabletted and cross finials and corner pinnacles.

The south porch is probably from the 14th century, exhibiting a simple moulded pointed outer arch. The inner arch might be earlier, with a double chamfered order. The door is very early, bearing the plate for a former sanctuary handle. The pointed barrel vault ceiling is under a stone slab roof, with a string at the springing level. The vestry opposite the south porch is likely 20th century.

Internally, the chancel boasts a 19th-century ribbed and boarded roof, with probable 19th-century rebuilds of the east and north walls. A cinquefoil cusped rere-arch is visible in the south-west window. The chancel arch is double-chamfered on corbel heads. The nave features a cusped braced queenpost roof, likely dating from the 15th or 16th century, with moulded timbers, panelling, and leaf bosses. Simple rere-arches are present on the north wall windows, with otherwise plain walls. A small stoup is situated near the south door. The fittings include an elaborate 19th-century timber reredos with side panels, an early 17th-century octagonal timber panelled pulpit with a matching back panel and flat-topped tester, and pews incorporating 17th-century elements in the dado panelling and bench ends. Original 17th-century doors are incorporated into the dadoes. The octagonal panelled font sits on a square panelled shaft, dating to the 15th century, with a 17th-century cover. A recumbent effigy, dating from around 1275, is located in a segmental arched recess within the north wall of the sanctuary. A broken bell, probably early, is found at the west end of the church.