The parish church of St Mary the Virgin sits inland from the seafront on the rise of the High Street, with a stocky 14th-century tower and a Victorian-era nave that replaced an earlier medieval building. The interior is plain Victorian Gothic Revival, with stained glass mostly from the 1860s and 1870s and a quiet, well-kept atmosphere unusual for a busy seaside town.
Worth ten minutes for the tower (an early survivor, the lower stages dating from before 1500), the carved Purbeck-marble fittings, and the gravestones outside which include some good quarryman names. Open in daylight hours most days; a small folder by the door explains the building's history.