The church of St Mary consists of a chancel with north organ chamber, two bay nave with clerestory, north & south aisle, south porch and a west tower with short spire. Dating to the 12th century are the lower half of the tower, the north aisle and then fifty years later the south aisle around 1200. The Norman arcades may predate the 12th century work and could be 11th century, some of the capitals also have good carvings. In the 13th century the chancel was lengthened and a chapel was added on the north side, in the 14th century the church had new windows inserted in the aisles as well as the clerestory added.
The church underwent a restoration in 1874-75 which included widening the north aisle which then incorporated the chapel as a organ chamber and vestry. The east window dates to the Victorian restoration but the lateral ones are 15th century. Back to the Norman capitals which are also enriched on the underside, and the capital of the pillar has on its four sides a human head (west), a ram’s head (north), a grotesque human head (east), and a fir cone (south), between which are volutes terminating in fir cones. The capital of the west respond is elaborately scalloped and the abacus enriched with cheveron, while the capital of the east respond is carved with stiff-leaf foliage of rather naturalistic type, below a band of nail-studded lozenge-shaped trellis ornament, the abacus being enriched with studded intertwining bands.
The trefoiled ogee-headed piscina of the aisle altar has a circular projecting bowl carved in front with a male head, and below the south window is a wide four-centred moulded recess, the hollow of the moulding enriched with four-leaf and other flowers, containing the table tomb of William de Overton (d. c. 1400), the slab of which has an incised cross and French inscription round the edge. The font is plain and of octagonal design and dates to the 13th century.
“If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first at churchmicro@gmail.com so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication. There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page found via the Bookmark list”