Monument record NYW 022 - Church of St Mary

St Mary's Church stands isolated on a small raised eyot in the floodplain of the River Stour; the road giving access is raised as a causeway. It is a small Norman building of late C12 date in three sections: nave, chancel and apse. There is a probability that a tower stood over the chancel section. The apse was reconstructed on the site of the original in 1853 (S1). S nave windows probably enlarged at some time. There are fine C13 wall paintings on N & S walls of the nave.
The building is rendered inside and out, but a series of small sections of S nave interior wall fabric were exposed when the pews were moved (October 1989) to reveal an area of herringboned brickwork, difficult to date but thought to be Med not Rom.
The building had recently been excavated around for the creation of a shingle bed to dry the walls.
2004: reused Roman tiles exposed in Med fabric of SW quoin of nave - see parish file.
S & W of ?moated area NYW 007.