St Mary's is a substantial church of 1858-60 by W. H. Brakspear, spacious within and equipped outside with an array of battlements and pinnacles. It has a W tower, a clerestoreyed, aisled nave of six bays, N and S transepts, and a chancel with an organ loft and vestry on the N side and a chapel on the S. The stone is a pink sandstone. There is a collection of loose stones in the N transept, including the Romanesque fragments described below.

In 1086 Bowdon was held by Hamo from Earl Hugh. There was a church and a priest to which half a hide belonged.

The chip-carved stones must belong to a campaign of c.1100, but both the Saracen's head corbel and the bishop relief are later 12thc. The form of the bishop relief - a rectangular stone containing only part of the figure - suggests a large tympanum rather than a tomb slab, which is a very exciting possibility. Unfortunately the inscription is too curtailed to offer much help in identification.