St Mary The Virgin

Flint and pebble rubble, with dressings of limestone, clunch and brick, partly Roman, roofed with handmade red clay tiles.

Nave and western half of Chancel late C11, W tower c.1200, eastern half of chancel c.1230, N porch C15.

The Chancel has Roman brick quoins approx. 3.5 metres from the W end which indicate its original termination.

In the E wall are 3 C13 lancet windows with rear arches chamfered on the inside and outside

In the N wall are 3 C13 lancets with shallow 2-centred rear-arches, chamfered on the inside.

further W is a C13 'low-side' window with 2-centred head, much restored.

Between the 2 eastern windows is a blocked C19 doorway, and between the 2 western windows is a blocked C16 doorway with jambs and 2-centered arch of brick.

The C11 chancel arch has square plastered responds with chamfered imposts at the E angles, and a semi-circular arch, of which the voussoirs of Roman brick have been exposed on the E face.

a high collar in the gable, 2 pairs of projecting sole-pieces, profiled sprockets and weathered plain bargeboards indicate that it is medieval in structure, probably C13.

The Nave has quoins of Roman brick, with a C17 brick buttress at the SW corner, and a C20 brick buttress/stack near it.

the eastern is C19 except for C15 splays and segmental rear arch

the western window is of c.1100, of one light with plastered jambs and semi-circular head, enclosed by the N porch.

The N doorway is C14, with jambs of 2 chamfered orders and a 2-centred arch of 2 hollow-chamfered orders with a modern wooden frame and door.

The NE corner of the Nave is cut back to form a reredos, with remains of an ornamental ribbed vault and bosses in moulded plaster, late C15/early C16.

Near the E end of the S wall is a rood-stair within the rubble wall, with early C16 brickwork projecting on the outside

the upper doorway is blocked, plastered and painted over Further W are 2 windows uniform with those in the N wall, and the early C13 S doorway, with chamfered jambs

2-centred arch with a moulded label, and a plain boarded door, blocked on the inside, set below a semi-circular arch of Roman brick, c.1100.

it is 7-canted, plastered to the soffit, with C19 carved wallplates.

The W tower, c.1200, is of 3 stages divided by string courses of Coggeshall brick, with a single clasping buttress at the SW corner to the first stage only.

The quoins are of Roman and Coggeshall brick.

In the second stage of the N, S and W walls there is an early C13 lancet window with jambs and head of Coggeshall brick and timber lintels inside.

The bell-chamber has in the N, S and W walls a C13 lancet with Coggeshall brick jambs

C17/C18 brick heads, except the S window, which has a stone head. (P.J. Drury, The Production of Brick and Tile in Medieval England, C.B.A. Report 40, Medieval Industry (ed. D.W. Crossley), 1983, 126-7).

The early C13 W doorway, restored, has a 2-centred arch of 2 chamfered orders

Spire not examined, but reported by RCHM to be c.1600.

The N porch is C15, restored, timber framed in 2 bays.

There are C13 paintings above the Chancel arch in 4 tiers

and in the fourth tier a row of figures, of which only 2 are now distinct.

On the S wall, in the blocked upper doorway of the rood-stair, a black letter injunction to pray for King James I and the royal family, with traces of a border, and near the W end, a head of a man with cap, C13/C14.

On the W wall, N of the tower arch, is an illegible inscription in an ornamental frame, early C17.

There are 4 bells, the third C14 inscribed 'Vocor Johanes'

the founders name, Peter de Weston, and the fourth by Richard Bowler, 1601.

The font is C18, with a round marble bowl on a tapering column and octagonal base of limestone.

On the S wall of the Chancel there are slate tablets to Joshua Blower the elder, 1694, rector of the parish, and to Elizabeth (Oliver), second wife of Joshua Blower, 1656.

In the Chancel is a piscina of c.1240, with double hollow-chamfered jambs and segmental head with mask stops, the round basin cut back, and 2 sedilia with chamfered jambs and 2-centred head with moulded labels and imposts, 2 mask stops and a floriate stop, the middle pier finished with an octagonal shaft having a moulded base and resting on a bracket with mask-stop corbel, c.1240.

There are 14 early C16 benches with moulded top rails and panelled ends, mostly linenfold, 2 with panelled backs, the other backs plain, and one similar panelled front.