Church Of St Thomas

The Church of St Thomas is a parish church built in 1879. It is constructed from snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings, topped with a Welsh slate roof featuring red ridge tiles and stone gable copings. The church comprises a nave with a south-west tower and a south aisle, with the westernmost bay serving as a porch; and a chancel with a north vestry. It is designed in the Geometric style.

The porch has a steeply-gabled design with a chamfered and moulded open 2-centred arch containing steps leading to a trefoil-headed door. Aisle windows are paired under linked drip-moulds; tall north windows are present, alongside paired 2-light west windows under a roundel, 2-light chancel windows, and a large 3-light east window set within a stepped 5-arch arcade. The tall, round tower has stair slits in the two lower stages; its octagonal belfry features four stone-louvred openings below gabled drip-moulds, topped by an octagonal stone spire with ribbed faces and a stone and iron finial. Windows have Geometric tracery, with those in the north and south having flattened 2-centred heads under 2-centred drip-moulds; the larger windows have 2-centred heads. A continuous sill string, stepped to the chancel windows, runs around the tower and buttresses, with the buttresses on the east walls of the nave and chancel being diagonal. A foundation stone dated 1875 is set into the north-east buttress. The steeply-pitched roofs are finished with flat gable copings and stone cross finials.

Inside, the walls are plastered and painted, with ashlar arcade and dressings. The nave roof is boarded and panelled in five planes, while the chancel roof is similarly panelled in four, extending to wall frieze panels. The 3-bay arcade features double-chamfered 2-centred arches on round columns with moulded capitals; the easternmost capital is continuous with the chancel sill string, which is stepped to the east window and forms a drip-mould to the large north organ arch. Foliage-stopped drip-moulds are present. A tall chancel arch, with a chamfer and roll-moulding, rests on polished grey granite shafts with crocket capitals and stone corbels. The Caen stone pulpit has a blind arcade with tracery; the panel facing west is filled with high-relief vine carving, and there are red marble shafts to the arcade. Similar materials were used to create the quatrefoil font. The reredos incorporates a wood arcade framing painted panels depicting the Lord's Prayer, Commandments, and Creed. Stained glass from the 19th and 20th centuries, including windows by Atkinson Bros. of Newcastle, is found within the south aisle windows.