[5] In the 14th century, the churchyard at St Mary's was the gathering place of a contingent of men from Essex, who then marched south to London to join Wat Tyler in the Peasants' Revolt.

[5] St Mary's contains a notable monument to the Gwyn sisters and their friend Ann Antrim by Henry Cheere.

[10][11] In September 2022 the church was the starting point for a commemorative walk, ending at Chelmsford Cathedral, for families, mainly from Essex, who had lost children to violent crime.

James Bettley, in the Essex volume of the Pevsner Buildings of England series, considered the church exterior "splendid", due largely to its Tudor brickwork dating from this time.

Designed by Herbert Maryon in 1912, it commemorates a prominent local solicitor, William Ward Duffield, his wife, Marianne and their son.