Holy Cross Church

Holy Cross Church

This is a Grade II listed church built of squared and dressed local sandstone laid in regular courses, with a plinth. The later north aisle is constructed of undressed stonework laid less regularly. Ashlar dressings are used throughout, and the roofs are covered with graduated Welsh slate. Most windows contain stained glass, except for the two windows in the north aisle.

The church is positioned at the west side of a roughly rectangular churchyard, with its west end facing the road. The plan comprises a four-bay nave with a north aisle and a west tower, with a vestry attached to the north side of the tower. A narrower two-bay chancel is attached to the east, with a boiler room to its north side.

All gables feature moulded kneelers supporting copings with trefoil-carved ends. All buttresses are angled and stepped with carved quatrefoils to their upper parts. All windows are fitted with hoodmoulds, mostly with simple mason stops.

The south wall of the chancel contains a pair of narrow rectangular windows with ogee heads. The south wall of the nave has angle buttresses and three Decorated-style windows, with a lancet lighting the fourth bay. The west tower is three stages tall with a saddleback roof and faces the road. Its ground floor contains a pointed-arch main entrance fitted with studded double wooden doors and a window in the form of a Greek cross with splayed ends on the south wall. The second stage has paired louvered lancet openings, and a bell is affixed to the north face. The third stage features a pointed-arched opening with louvered plate tracery and carved kneelers. A single-storey vestry is attached to the north wall of the tower, with a gabled bay containing paired pointed-arched windows and a quatrefoil above, with a shoulder-arched door to the left.

The east end of the nave has a convex-sided triangular window with trefoil tracery at its apex. A large Decorated east window with hoodmould and carved head stops sits above, with a stone cross finial at the apex. The north wall of the chancel is blind and partly subterranean with the boiler house attached. The north elevation of the nave contains rectangular windows comprising triple lancets with multi-foil heads. There is a single chimney stack to the west end and a stone cross finial to the east end.

Inside, the pointed chancel arch springs from clustered columns and has a hoodmould with carved head stops. The Sanctuary has half oak-panelled walls incorporating a top frieze of floral and foliate bosses, with plainly painted walls above. It has a terrazzo floor and a timber vaulted ceiling, top-lit by a line of rectangular clerestory windows. The stained glass in the east window is by William Wailes and depicts Christ flanked by St Joan and St Peter. The oak reredos is intricately carved with foliated pinnacles, and there are riddel posts surmounted by carved angels on either side of the altar, with a carved altar rail to the front.

The nave walls are of exposed stonework with a stone floor and vaulted timber ceiling, top-lit by rectangular clerestory windows. To the right of the chancel arch is a carved oak pulpit set on a stone plinth formed from 18th-century tombstones. To the left of the arch is a pair of oak choir stalls with carved ends. The body of the nave is filled with plain benches with shaped ends. The west wall is pierced by a large pointed arch fitted with geometric double timber and glass doors with sidelights, leading to the ground floor of the tower. A scar of a former roof line is visible in the upper part, along with a blocked opening.

The north aisle, with a scissor-braced roof, is separated from the nave by a pointed-arch arcade carried on octagonal columns and capitals. The westernmost bay houses a baptistery entered through a carved oak screen with intricately carved half doors. The floor comprises a number of medieval cross slabs and 17th and 18th-century tombstones. A carved stone font sits on an inserted stone platform. The bay to the right houses a very large organ with the inscription "Te Deum Laudamus" across its front, flanked by gothic timber screens on three sides. Several memorials and plaques are affixed to the walls, including one in the form of a draped urn to George Culley (died 1849). The lancet window in the south nave wall contains stained glass depicting St George as a memorial to another descendant of the Culley family.

The churchyard is surrounded on three sides by a simple drystone wall. On the west side, the wall is of dressed blocks with stone copings and steps upslope to the left. The main entrance to the west door is flanked by rectangular gate piers surmounted by carved caps incorporating trefoil decoration. There is a narrower entrance to the churchyard to the right. Both openings are fitted with wooden gates.