Church Of St Mary The Less

The Church of St Mary the Less, now a college chapel, dates to the 12th century and was largely rebuilt in 1846-7 by Pickering, retaining some original fabric. Constructed of irregularly-coursed squared sandstone with ashlar quoins and dressings, it has a Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings. The building comprises a nave and a south porch, with a chancel. It is designed in a Neo-Norman style. The four-bay nave incorporates a shallow porch in its second bay, featuring a round-headed double door within a shafted surround with a chevron moulding, set beneath a steeply-pitched gable with moulded kneelers. Three large round-headed windows flank the nave, featuring shafts with cushion capitals, a sill string, and bracketed eaves. The two-bay chancel includes round-headed windows with moulded surrounds and head-stopped dripmoulds; the window on the left is smaller and was transferred from the original church. Large round-headed east and west windows define the chancel's ends. A small west bellcote displays two round arches beneath a gable.

Built into the south wall, beneath the first window to the right of the porch, are memorial slabs of Frosterley marble dedicated to Dorothy and Frances Carnaby (died 1684 and 1692) and to Joan Lever, wife of Cuthbert (died 1669).

Inside, the nave has plastered walls above a dado with a battlemented top. The chancel plaster is above 17th-century carved panelling adorned with cherubs' heads, Gothic tracery, and pinnacles. Head corbels support an arch-braced collar and king-post roof, with stencilled stars decorating the chancel ceiling. The chancel arch incorporates a chevron moulding and is flanked by two lower segments set into the wall. The interior door has a roll-moulded chevron surround, a lozenge-moulded drip string on griffin stops, and a diaper pattern within a panel above the gable. A shouldered- arched north vestry is accessed via a door flanked by a mandorla featuring a seated Christ and symbols of the Evangelists. A cross-slab features in the south wall, displaying an interlaced 8-arm cross and a sword. Painted wooden memorial panels commemorate members of the Butler family who died in 1708 and 1710, and to John Butler – “a zealous protestant” – who died in 1597. A large, dark funeral hatchment hangs above the chancel arch. A Gothic memorial is situated at the west end, dedicated to Martin Dunn, the mayor, who died in 1838.