Church Of St Mary The Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is an Anglican parish church, predominantly dating to the 15th and 16th centuries, with a 19th-century restoration. It is constructed of ashlar, with lead sheeting roofs and coped verges, and features cruciform finials. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles that clasp the chancel, a south aisle with a two-story meeting room at its west end, a north aisle with a transeptal chapel now serving as a vestry, a west tower, and a south porch. The architecture is Perpendicular in style.

The three-stage west tower has diagonal buttresses, pinnacles, an embattled parapet, gargoyles, niches containing figures, a recessed stone spire with blind arcading, and two-light bell-chamber windows with louvres. A clock is situated on the south side, and a small turret serves the ringing chamber. The west window is of two lights, and a door is centrally placed. The nave has a crenellated parapet with pinnacles and gargoyles, including a continuous arrangement over the chancel. A clerestory features three-light cambered head windows, three to the nave and one beyond the chancel arch. The aisle parapets incorporate blind, foiled niches, continuing over the porch, meeting room, and north chapel, with further gargoyles. Four-bay aisles are characterized by buttresses and large three-light windows, along with north and south doorways. A rood turret is located in the north aisle. The south porch has a 13th-century shafted doorway. The meeting room has two-light windows on the first floor and barred openings on the ground floor. The chapel features two cusped lancets, and small three-light windows flank the chancel, with a five-light east window above.

The interior is particularly well furnished, featuring plastered walls and flagstone floors. A five-bay arcade separates the north and south aisles, with piers displaying four shaft-mouldings. The tower arch comprises three recessed orders, and the chancel arch rests on corbels. A 15th-century wagon roof covers the nave, with decorative bosses. Lean-to roofs are present in the aisles, the south aisle's roof exhibiting elaborate corbels. The chancel is covered by a 17th-century tie-beam roof supported by angel corbels. A fan vault is situated under the tower, while the vestry has a ribbed tunnel vault. A 14th-century piscina features a cusped head and an entrance to a former rood loft. A 19th-century stone reredos incorporates a medieval tablet on each side. Extensive woodwork, largely the gift of the Fortesque family, includes a two-tiered arcaded screen with paired readers, obelisk finials, strapwork, heraldic shields, and a coloured achievement of Stuart arms enclosed in a carved frame with a cornice and strapwork cresting. A pulpit bears a sounding board dated 1616, and numerous 17th-century box pews are present, along with further 15th-century pews with carved ends and poppy finials, later altered to box pews. A stone tablet with an achievement is set into the north chancel wall, accompanied by three 18th-century and ten 19th-century monuments. Two brasses belonging to the Bisse family are located in the south aisle, dated 1606 and 1625. The octagonal, lead-lined font is likely from the 14th century. A branch is dated 1707, with a further large 18th-century branch. A 19th-century wooden plaque in the north aisle commemorates two charities. The furnishings include two 17th-century chairs and an elaborate chest, along with 19th-century stained glass in the chancel and under the tower, and an east window in the south aisle of 1925, containing some medieval glass in the sub-lights. The church houses a peal of six bells, the earliest dated 1613, and an organ dated 1837.