"St Mary's has a nave with a two-bay N aisle without any windows and a S doorway under a porch. The square-ended chancel has a N vestry and organ chamber, and there is a W tower with a broach spire with two tiers of lucarnes. An 11thc. window in the W wall of the nave indicates an early date for the core building. The S doorway dates from the early 13thc., and the N arcade and tower are slightly later. The S porch is dated 1663, and at that date too the S nave wall was rebuilt. The clerestoreys to N and S were presumably added at that time too. At some point, probably in the 15thc., the chancel fell down, and the E nave wall was rebuilt without a chancel. Until the new chancel was built in 1902 on the old foundations, St Mary's was claimed to be the smallest parish church in England. Construction is of stone rubble and ashlar. The church boasts an exceptional font of the 1120s.
The font stands at the W end of the nave. The cylindrical bowl stands on a cylindrical pedestal with a chamfered plinth. The lower part of this pedestal is the bowl of another font, found during excavations for the rebuilding of the chancel in 1902 (see VIII below).
The bowl is carved with a 13-bay arcade with round arches on double shafts with double-roll bases and capitals divided horizontally into three bands. The arches themselves are articulated with double rolls. Above the arcade, below the upper rim, is a broad band of foliage in the form of a snaking stem with a furled trilobed leaf in each loop. Above this, around the rim, is a row of embattled ornament (described by Bond (1908) as billet). Each arch contains a figure or other motif. Arches are numbered anticlockwise starting at the E:
1. Standing figure of Christ (?), beardless, robed, frontal and haloed, his R hand raised and his L pointing to the figure in bay 2.
2. Standing, bearded, robed figure with book turned three-quarters towards Christ in bay 1.
3. Vertical plant with trefoil flower at the top, and three pairs of leaves to either side of the stem.
4 - 5. Baptism scene. In bay 4 a haloed, robed, bearded figure, body to R, face frontal, gesturing with his R hand towards bay 5, in which a naked haloed figure is submerged to the waist in water. Above him and to the L is a dove; above his head to the R an indecipherable object. Presumably the Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist.
6. A figure-of-eight foliage scroll with straggling hook-ended tendrils issuing from it.
7. A robed angel, body to R, face frontal with R hand raised. The figure appears to have wings but also, unusually for an angel, a beard.
8. Standing robed figure, body to L, face frontal, book in L hand, pointing upwards with R hand. Projecting downwards from the waist area is a straight object with what appears to be a knot at the end. This is either his belt or a large key. If the latter it is St Peter, and his curly hair would suit this interpretation. In this case, bays 7 and 8 together form the scene of St Peter and the angel (Acts 12, 6-8).
9 - 10. Two soldiers fighting. Each has an oval shield with central boss in his L hand and brandishes a mace in his R. The L figure (bay 9) has a beard; the R is clean-shaven.
11. Foliage motif; the lower part worn but the upper terminating in a pair of symmetrical furled leaves.
12. Standing, frontal robed and haloed figure, probably Christ, holding a book in his R hand and pointing with his L towards the figure in bay 13.
13. Standing, robed figure turned three-quarters towards Christ in bay 12. He holds a book in his R hand and this, together with his bald head and beard, suggests St Paul.
The figures are stocky with overlarge heads and hands. Drapery is depicted by parallel grooves. Faces have round bulging eyes and cheeks, and hair is often depicted as a series of pellets. In this they resemble contemporary coin portraits.
The bowl is lead lined with a mortar repair running all around the rim."
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