On the left bank is the medieval-core church of St Mary the Virgin housing eight bells with the largest weighing 21 cwt.

[4] Approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the village, on the edge of the Dedham Vale (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), is a unique geoglyph, a chalk outline of a dragon, which was created as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.

[5] A viewpoint of the dragon can be accessed on a public footpath, close to St. Stephen's Chapel, the oldest building in the parish.

It has long been popularly held to stand on the traditional site of the coronation of Edmund the Martyr, crowned King of the East Saxons on Christmas Day 855 or 856, as corroboration of which the chronicler Galfridus de Fontibus described the coronation as having taken place at "Bures, which is an ancient royal hill".

They inherited Colne Priory at the Dissolution, and used the chapel there as their principal burial place until the early 18th century.