Description:
Pevsner writes about St. Mary's:
The tower is of the same type as found across the river for example, at Bunny, that is, with the buttresses connected horizontally by a band at the top, and battlements above that. Then follows a much thinner spire without broaches just as in the neighbouring churches of Wollaton (Nottingham), Stapleford, Barton-in-Fabis, Cossall, etc.
The whole steeple however, is larger than any of the others. It belongs to the early Perp style, it appears.
An impression of largeness is also conveyed by the interior, with its exceptionally tall circular piers and four bays north and south. They date from the first half of the C13, as is proved by the foliage of the capitals on the north side, the mouldings of the arches, and the oversized billet and nailhead ornament. The most surprising thing about Attenborough is however; that the south capitals have been redone by a workman of the C14 with fanciful heads and monsters and large leaves. The comparison between the styles of the two centuries is instructive. The tower cuts off half a bay from the arcades.
The doorway in the north aisle is earlier than the arcade (round-headed, waterleaf capitals). The aisle windows mostly date that of the steeple. At the same time nave and aisles were embattled.
The chancel (much rebuilt in 1869) has a plain parapet instead and a large later Perp windows, similar to Lambley. Just as there, brackets for statues were inserted left and right of the east window.
The alter table is Jacobean and the font is a plain C13 with nothing but blank pointed arcades on the eight panels. The choir stalls are C14, two tall ends preserved with elaborate blank tracery (a pentagram in a roundel for example). The modern choir stalls contain fragments of Jacobean carvings, very worldly, with mermaids and a merman with a goatee. The initials IP point to the Powtrell family and there is indeed a wooden memorial tablet in the church with the arms and the date 1623.
The south door (seen here) has splendid large primitive iron scrollwork and original boards: it looks at the latest Romanesque and the Porch was rebuilt in the C18. There are small bits of C15 stained glass in the tracery of the south windows.
Many finds from the Neolithic to the Roman period have been made in the nearby gravel-pits.