Church Of St. Mary

The Church of St. Mary is a parish church dating to the 13th century, with additions and alterations from the 19th and 20th centuries to the north aisle, a large west extension, a small east extension, and a south porch. It is constructed of sandstone, with medieval rubble and modern snecked stone, featuring a plinth, quoins, and ashlar dressings. The roof is covered with grey Lakeland slates, with graduated green slates on the chancel, and has stone gable copings. The church comprises a 7-bay nave with a continuous north aisle that extends as an organ chamber to the chancel, a 4-bay chancel, and a south porch. The style is Early English.

The steeply-gabled porch has double boarded doors in a chamfered surround with a dripmould, along with three closely-set lancets to the east and three more widely-spaced modern lancets to the west. The lower chancel has a blocked priest’s door to the west, featuring a continuous impost and dripmould, and chamfered, rectangular low side windows to the left of the door. There are four irregular lancets to the east, two of which were inserted. The east front has been rebuilt with three lancets with renewed heads and irregular block surrounds. The west front includes paired nave lancets under a vesica, a gabled bellcote with paired arches, and a buttress between the nave and aisle. The aisle has three stepped lancets under a gable. The north aisle features a door and a group of five lancets, alongside a low arched vault recess. There is a gabled vestry. The roofs are steeply pitched with stone cross finials.

The interior features rubble walls with ashlar dressings, and plaster in the chancel. It houses a modern crown-post nave roof and a panelled chancel roof. A chamfered 13th-century chancel arch, of two orders, features pyramid stops above and below an impost string. The arcade is double-chamfered, supported by round piers with moulded capitals. The south door has a double-chamfered external face and a drip mould on the impost string, with half-octagonal shafts. The lancets have trefoil heads; the medieval ones have squared corners. A roll-moulded piscina has a carved bowl, and there are two square-headed piscinas (one in the south nave wall with a projecting bowl, and one altered in the aisle wall). An octagonal, medieval font sits on a square pedestal with broach-stopped chamfers. A C17 pew backs, with widely-spaced balusters, have been reused as a dado on the west and south walls and behind the lectern. Monuments include an inscribed panel to Thomas and Hannah Watson, who died in 1713 and 1696 respectively, featuring a corniced frame with a coat of arms in a scrolled pediment, located north of the chancel arch. Other features include a medieval effigy, incised grave covers in the chancel, six other medieval grave slabs set in the north aisle and the south porch. A high-quality rood screen, a memorial to 2nd Lieutenant H.W. Summerson, who died in 1918, features a low-relief panel depicting a kneeling soldier and Gothic tracery.