Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church dating to around 1190, and likely incorporating earlier fabric. It has undergone minor alterations from the late medieval period, with a south porch dated 1749 (reusing a medieval arch), a west buttress dated 1740, and an 18th-century bellcote. The chancel was partly rebuilt in 1882 by John Wardle of Newcastle, and the nave was restored with the addition of a vestry in 1896 by Hicks and Charlewood.

The church is constructed of squared stone of differing periods, with tooled stone and tooled-and-margined dressings in the 19th-century sections. The roofs are primarily graduated Lakeland slate, with Welsh slates on the vestry. The church consists of an aisleless nave, a south porch, and a chancel with a north vestry.

The west end features a chamfered plinth and a broad, shallow pilaster buttress (likely concealing an earlier doorway), flanked by renewed round-headed windows. The bellcote has twin pointed openings above a band, a flat top with corner finials, and a square central turret with gable openings on each face, topped with a pyramidal cap and weathercock. The south wall of the nave shows two renewed round-headed windows to the east of a large porch, with a tall, double-chamfered arch on plain square jambs and a coped gable topped with a 19th-century cross finial. Stone benches and a 19th-century scissor-braced roof with a carved wall-plate are also present. The boarded double doors are set within a 12th-century doorway of three square orders; waterleaf capitals from the outer orders survive, although the shafts are missing. A bearded head corbel is set in the wall above the doorway. The north wall has two two-light windows, originally sash windows (one dated 1792), which were remodelled in the late 19th century with 14th-century style tracery. The gables have moulded pitched coping, with a cross finial on the east gable.

The chancel, largely rebuilt in 1882 except for the west portion of the south wall, has a restored round-headed window and a plain north wall. It features a square-headed priest's door and a second round-headed window on the south, and three stepped, similar windows on the east end. There is a chamfered eaves cornice and a flat-coped east gable with moulded kneelers, carrying a wheel cross finial. The vestry contains a two-light north window, reset from the south wall of the chancel.

Inside, the rear arches of the south and possibly west windows are original 12th-century work. The round chancel arch is of two square orders on three detached shafts with waterleaf capitals and holdwater bases. A double-chamfered segmental-pointed arch leads to the vestry/organ chamber. The roofs are 19th-century, with arch-braced collar-beam trusses and upper king posts in the nave, supported by moulded stone corbels. The chancel roof is barrelled and panelled. A 19th-century panelled dado with a brattished top rail is found in the nave. A small octagonal font of uncertain date stands on a 19th-century stepped base, and has a carved font cover from 1912.