Church Of St. Mary

The Church of St. Mary is a church dating from 1924 to 1926, designed by Temple Moore and Leslie T. Moore. It is constructed of dressed sandstone with a double-chamfered plinth and has plain clay tiled roofs. The building is cruciform in shape, featuring a tower over the crossing, a south and west porch, and a clerestoried chancel with aisles. It is designed in the Early English style.

The exterior is characterized by clasping buttresses and buttresses between bays. The two-stage squat tower has paired louvred bell openings and watershoots within recessed spandrels on its upper stage; it is topped with a corbelled embattled parapet. The gabled west porch features four steps leading to a double-chamfered opening, with a trefoil-headed niche containing a figure of the Virgin and Child. The two-bay nave has single and paired lancet windows, and a further three lancets at the west end. Slit vents are located above the plinth of the nave, transepts and chancel aisles. The south transept exhibits five stepped lancets, while the pent east porch has a Caernarvon-headed doorway beneath a partially blind trefoil-headed window. The north transept features three stepped lancets, with a slightly-projecting gabled stair turret at the north-east angle, including slit windows and a chimney stack at the angle. The three-bay chancel has paired clerestory windows and a tall lancet on the south wall, with five stepped lancets at the east end. A corner stone in the south-east buttress is inscribed and dated 1924. The two-bay south aisle has lancet windows, and the three-bay north aisle has square-headed windows and a centrally-placed Caernarvon-arched boarded and studded door. All windows have original iron grilles, and all openings have chamfered surrounds under hoodmoulds.

The interior west porch has a stone barrel roof and benches, and a boarded and studded double door under a flat arch. A double hollow-chamfered tower arch sits on short conjoined shaft responds, and a similar arrangement is seen for the transept and chancel arches, which rest on round responds with moulded capitals and bases. The chancel arcades feature stop-chamfered square piers and continuous hoodmoulds. A Caernarvon-arched door is located in the blind east bay of the north arcade. Oak arcade screens, added in 1942 by Thompson (Kilburn), are also present. The nave and transepts have barrel roofs with arch-braced ties and moulded wall plates, while the chancel’s roof is of queenpost truss construction with arch braced ties and curved queen struts to the purlins. Wainscoting runs to sill height in the nave and transepts. Plain oak benches are arranged throughout. A panelled decagonal oak pulpit rests on short round colonnettes and exhibits dogtooth-moulded muntins. A plain circular font is also present, alongside a Caernarvon-headed four-bay sedilia and piscina. The church is an important local landmark, situated on high ground amidst fields.