St Mary’s, Tufton (or Tuckington), serves a small village located to the SW of Whitchurch in the Test valley. It is a small building with rendered walls and red tile roofs. Internally, the three lancets on each side of the chancel are set within arcades with pointed arches and smooth capitals, probably dating from the early 13thc. The W window on the S side is larger than the others. The plain chancel arch and nave are approximately a century older. The S doorway of the nave is set within a later brick porch. Two windows with monolithic heads survive on the N elevation, and one on the S. A diminutive bellcote is set over a compartment at the W end of the nave. The font may date from c.1200.

In 1086 Tufton was held by Wherwell Abbey. No church was mentioned. Nevertheless, the nave - including the S doorway, three windows and chancel arch - appears to date from the late 11thc.

The chancel was rebuilt (probably on a larger scale) in the early 13thc. The heavily retooled or renewed font may have originated in the same period (although suspicion lingers that it was supplied during one of the 1880s restorations).

The red brick S porch and the Classical doorcases flanking the bellcote are usually dated to the 18thc. However, in 1878 White's Directory of Hampshire reported that 'the nave was burnt down at the beginning of the present century and rebuilt in the boldest style' (White's Directory of Hampshire, 1878, 592). As well as the porch and doorcases, other aspects of the church that may have dated from this repair campaign include the bellcote, a round-headed E window (replaced 1887), the nave ceiling and plastered wall surfaces. The S doorway was undoubtedly lost to view when the porch was added and a new doorway, with a new doorcase (since removed), installed. The Norman windows may have been blocked at this point, or at an earlier date.

The fire cannot have been too destructive since two cross-light windows of early 18thc. type survive at the E end of the nave.

In the course of a partial restoration in 1882 a wallpainting of St Christopher was discovered on the N side of the nave (Hampshire Chronicle, 2 December 1882, 5). This was followed by another restoration in 1887, involving a new E window, a new roof, and buttresses (Bullen et al. 2010, 522). However, in neither 1882 nor 1887 were the S doorway and Norman windows uncovered. They remained hidden in 1911, when the VCH commented: 'The south doorway has square jambs and head with a wooden frame and a high semicircular rear arch. The head is completely hidden by the porch, and there is nothing to show its date, but the rear arch is probably original, c.1120.' In was only in the course of repairs in 1922, including the removal of the early 19thc. ceiling, that the doorway was discovered (Hampshire Advertiser, 19 August 1922, 3). The windows were unblocked by the diocesan surveyor, W. Carpenter Turner, in 1940 (Bullen et al. 2010, 522).

In 1911 a broken Norman piscina with a square basin lay in the churchyard (Winchester Diocesan Chronicle, May 1911). Its current whereabouts is unknown.

The idea that the nave was Anglo-Saxon was prevalent in the 19thc, and has been followed by Historic England. However, the tall, narrow doorway - of a type found throughout Normandy and England - probably dates from the late 11thc. The sunken tympanum may have been plastered and decorated with mock opus reticulatum, like the later tympanum at Monk Sherborne to the NW. The three surviving windows and the chancel arch are undoubtedly of the same date.

The font may be retooled, or could be entirely modern, perhaps supplied in 1882 or 1887. Conceptually, but not in form or style, it resembles the font at Corhampton. It was in use by 1911 and is generally regarded as medieval.

No transcription has been found of the inscription on the intrados of the chancel arch.