St Mary the Virgin Churchyard

A church has existed here since the C12th and the present building dates from 1494, the date given unusually in Arabic numerals over the west door, which was renovated in 1956. A flint and ironstone building with white stone dressings, the church has a copper beacon on the tower which was set up in the C18th, possibly to celebrate the return to health of George III, and this was lit for Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation in 1953. The family crest of John Goodyere, Lord of the Manor (d.1504) is on the pillars of the church, a partridge with an ear of wheat; however, his memorial is not here although that of his wife is. Inside the church is a fine collection of small brasses from the C15th and C16th, and also a fine monument to Sir Roger and Lady Wilbraham who endowed Almshouses on Hadley Green. Sir Roger (d.1616) was Solicitor-General of Ireland and the monument by Nicholas Stone cost £50. In the chancel is a wooden monument to Henry Carew (d.1626) and his mother Lady Alice Stamford (d.1573), whose family became Lords of the Manor after the Abbot of Walden, who had been given the land in the C12th, was forced to surrender it at the Reformation. The church was restored in the mid C19th by G E Street and the interior is mainly C19th.

The churchyard contains a number of wooden 'bedhead' memorials and historic C19th tombs such as that of Emily Trollope, sister of Anthony Trollope, as well as that of W M Thackeray's grandparents, also Mrs Hester Chapone and John Monro MD. Near the churchyard are the Pagitts Almshouses, founded in 1678 by Justinian Pagitt, a lawyer, and his wife Antonina. The current buildings date from the C19th and are fronted by a small garden. The Pagitts also donated land for the Rectory.