Church Of St Mary Magdalene

The Church of St Mary Magdalene is a parish church with a 13th-century origin, substantially rebuilt in 1878 by Austin, Johnson and Hicks, except for the chancel and part of the south wall. It is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, a plinth, and quoins, and has a stone-flagged roof with stone gable copings. The church comprises a nave with a north aisle, a south porch, and a chancel with a north organ chamber and vestry.

The steeply-gabled south porch has double doors within a richly moulded, two-centred arched surround supported by shafts; it features a stone cross finial. An inner door has delicate wrought iron hinges set within a slightly-chamfered round-headed surround recessed in a roll-moulded shafted arch under a flat dripmould. The narrow windows are a mix of lancets and round-headed designs, with the nave windows being longer and paired to the right of the porch. The east end features three stepped lancets. The buttressed west end contains a single lancet window above a short buttress, while the south chancel windows sit on a sill string, with an east drip string rising to a high gable containing a roundel. A bellcote, featuring paired openings and a weathercock, is also present. The steeply-pitched roof, lower over the chancel, has an angelus and east cross finials.

Inside, the walls are plastered and the dressings are ashlar. The nave has a braced king-post roof, while the chancel features a panelled roof with brattished friezes. A wide, two-centred chancel arch has a wide chamfer and a similar inner arch, supported by corbels decorated with nail-head motifs, all beneath a dripmould. A 19th-century four-bay north arcade is in a similar style, using round piers and end corbels. Similar arches lead to the north Lady chapel/organ chamber. The east lancets have moulded rerearches set on ringed shafts with nail-head capitals; other windows have 19th-century rerearches, with the north aisle windows featuring round forms and paired blind two-centred arches between them, while the others are shouldered. Four medieval candle-holders, possibly re-used head-stops, are set in the chancel side walls, alongside a moulded cusped aumbry and a square-headed piscina under the sill string. The church contains 20th-century glass in two south chancel windows, signed Heaton, Butler and Bayne, London, to R.E. Parr, the vicar. A 19th-century choir screen is also present. Monuments include two late Georgian memorial plaques to the Hunter family, by Joplings of Gateshead and Newcastle. A grave slab at the west end marks the burial of Jane Hunter, who died in 1738, and other family members up to 1843, all interred in a vault. The church also houses a medieval-style octagonal pedestal font.