Church Of The Holy Cross

The Church of the Holy Cross is a parish church dating to the early 13th century, with substantial restoration work carried out in 1870 by R.J. Johnson. This restoration involved rebuilding the nave's west end and bellcote, inserting lancet windows into the aisles, raising the roof pitches, and redecorating the interior. The church is constructed of coursed and random rubble with green slate roofs.

It comprises a wide aisled nave, almost square in plan, with a vestry on the north side, and a chancel. The building is in the Early English style. The nave has four bays, with buttressed aisles featuring small lancet windows and steep pent roofs. Restored pointed north and south aisle doorways are present, with colonnettes. There are three original lancets on each side of the clerestory, with a steep nave roof. The rebuilt, buttressed west end has two tall lancets above a round window. A rebuilt gabled bellcote with twin openings sits above. The lower four-bay chancel has lancet windows, and a blocked two-light, mullioned window is on the chancel’s south wall. The east end features clasping buttresses with offsets and a group of three stepped lancets above a sill string, topped with a steep chancel roof. A gabled two-bay vestry is also present.

Inside the nave, the arcades feature pointed double-chamfered arches under hoodmoulds, supported by filleted responds and circular piers with moulded bases and irregular octagonal capitals. A head-stop is visible on the south-east pier. Clerestory windows have splayed rear arches set above the spandrels of the arcade. The roof is arch-braced and king-post, dating to 1870. A small trefoil-headed piscina is located near the east end of the south aisle. The chancel’s pointed arch is double-chamfered and under a hoodmould with head-stops, with a semi-octagonal rood-screen corbel flanking the arch. The three east-end lancets have trefoil-headed rear arches and colonnettes with shaft rings. A restored sedilia has three stepped-up seats under trefoil-headed arches on filleted shafts, accompanied by a small piscina in a trefoil-headed niche. The roof mirrors the nave’s design and may have been painted in 1881 to a design by C.E. Kempe.

Various fittings, monuments, and stained glass enrich the interior. In the nave, a hexagonal stone font, likely re-cut, bears the inscription “R.P. July 26 1676.” A roughly-carved circular stoup stands on a column. Four north aisle windows date to 1897 (by Morris and Co.), while the north aisle’s east window is from 1891 (by C.E. Kempe). The chancel contains a 1923 rood screen by Hicks and Charlewood, three elaborate medieval grave slabs, and a recumbent effigy of a knight (possibly Thomas De Blenkinsopp, died 1388) in the sanctuary. An 1869 carved marble reredos depicting the Nativity of Christ is also present, alongside a memorial stone to John Ridley (died 1632) and an aedicular wall monument to Wm. Gibson (died 1785), both on the south wall. Finally, three east lancets feature glass from 1871 by William Morris, and windows depicting the four Evangelists and four Latin Fathers from 1900-04 (by C.E. Kempe) are also present.