St Mary's Church

St Mary's Church was built by the Normans in the mid 12th century. Despite its destruction by French raids in 1217 and 1457, an earthquake in 1579 and the collapse of the tower in 1668, the Church still has remains of its original Norman arcading inside, together with a fifteenth century font and an ancient 'Peters Pence' box. Although greatly repaired in the 1870s, the Church fell into a ruinous condition, until 1952 when it was saved from demolition and restored by the Friends of St Mary's. It is now maintained by the Redundant Churches Fund., The 'King's Arms' opposite the Church (originally called the Queen's Arms') is one of the town's oldest timber-framed inns. It bears the carving of a cloven-hoofed satyr, dated 1592, and the coat-of-arms of Elizabeth I, formed from a wrought-iron fireback., Church Street St Mary has many fine old Tudor buildings and, with its several side streets, retains the original geometric grid pattern established when the town was rebuilt following the devastation of a French raid in 1457. 'The Drum' was once an old coaching inn. , (French not transcribed)