Church Of St Aidan

The Church of St. Aidan is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 13th and 14th centuries. It was restored in 1830 and again in the 19th century. The building is constructed of squared stone and ashlar, with stone slate roofs on the chancel and north transept; the other roofs are not visible. It comprises a west tower, nave, aisles, transepts, and chancel.

The west tower, likely built in the 13th or early 14th century, has four stages with offsets. It features a Y-tracery window on the ground floor and lancet bell openings. The top storey is a 19th-century addition with battlements. Aisle walls embrace the tower. The south aisle was rebuilt early in the 14th century, incorporating renewed 2- and 3-light Decorated windows and a 19th-century south door. It has a low-pitched roof behind a parapet. The south transept also has renewed Decorated windows.

The 13th-century chancel, with five bays, includes a crypt. It has paired lancets under a continuous dripstone. A former priest's door, now with a surround dating from 1830 and featuring rainwater heads with the arms of Lord Crewe, occupies the second bay. The east end is distinguished by three lancets of equal height, separated by buttresses, above a corbel table and terminating in a parapet and steeply-pitched roof.

The north transept, constructed in small squared 12th-century stone, has a narrow east lancet (visible internally) and renewed Decorated windows elsewhere, topped by a steeply-pitched roof. The north aisle, built with larger Medieval ashlar, incorporates four renewed Decorated windows.

Internally, evidence of an earlier Romanesque church is visible in the round rere-arch of the north transept’s east window, masonry within the south transept’s north wall, and the uneven construction of the nave’s east end. The tower has three triple-chamfered arches. The four-bay nave features a late 12th to early 13th century north arcade with round piers, simply-moulded capitals, and double-chamfered arches; the third pier has a stiff-leaf capital, and the east arch is unusually narrow. The south arcade is similar but slightly later in date. The transept arches have slight chamfers towards the nave and north aisle, but are unmoulded towards the transept; a wide 14th-century double-chamfered arch leads into the south aisle. Clerestory windows from the 16th century are now located beneath the roof. A 16th-century square newel stair is found within the tower. The tower ceiling contains an old forked beam linked to the legend of St. Aidan's death. The north aisle also has old arched tiebeams.

In the chancel, a double-chamfered arch provides access, and a Decorated squint is positioned to the right. Arcaded side walls feature pairs of arches rising above each pair of lancets, with a small arch between them, all springing from corbels that formerly supported shafts that have been removed. Features include a 14th-century sedilia, piscina, and aumbry. A 14th-century tomb recess holds an effigy of a Knight. Two low-side windows are present, the southern one being blocked. A notable feature is the elaborate 19th-century open timber roof. C17 altar rails are also present. Wall monuments include one to Claudius Forster (1623), featuring a cartouche in an aedicule, and another to the Forster family (1711), which is large and intricately carved. A large stone reredos, dating from 1895 and created by W.S. Hicks, houses statues of saints. The north aisle contains a recumbent effigy of Grace Darling (1844) by Raymond Smith, originally from the churchyard, and a Sharpe memorial from 1839 by Chantrey. Hatchments are displayed in the nave. A vaulted, two-bay crypt with cinquepartite rib vaults rising from corbels is also present.