Roman Catholic Church Of St Mary

The Roman Catholic Church of St Mary was built in 1857 by Gilbert Blount for Thomas Riddell, and is constructed of rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings and a graduated Lakeland slate roof. It comprises a three-bay aisleless nave, a south-west tower, a south porch, a two-bay chancel, a south sacristy, and a north vestry. The design is in a Free 14th-century style.

The church has a plinth and sill strings. The west end features stepped diagonal buttresses and a central boarded double door with foliate ironwork within a moulded arch, flanked by small trefoil-headed windows. Above the door is a four-light window, and a small, foiled light in the gable. The integral tower to the right steps back to an octagonal belfry with slatted trefoil-headed openings, projecting angels at the base of the spire, trefoiled vents, a moulded cap, and a wrought-iron finial. A steeply-gabled south porch has a moulded arch under canopied niches, a stoup, a stone seat, and a scissor-braced roof. Two-light windows are situated north and south of the nave. The gabled sacristy has two-light windows flanking a central buttress incorporating a chimney stack. The east end has stepped diagonal buttresses, two slits leading to a crypt below, and a five-light window; a spheric triangle window is in the gable. Single-light windows are positioned on the north side of the chancel, above the vestry, which is part of a former cloister linking to an adjacent, now-demolished, house. All openings have hoodmoulds with variously-carved stops. There are moulded eaves cornices with gargoyles, coped gables on trefoil-panelled kneelers, and finial crosses.

The interior is colourwashed. A west gallery is supported on three moulded arches. The richly-moulded chancel arch rests on angel corbels, with a canopied niche to the right. There are sedilia with carved nodding ogee arches, and a pillar piscina with a shelved recess. The nave has an arch-braced collar-beam roof on angel corbels, while the chancel has a wagon roof. A carved stone pulpit is also present. On the south nave wall is an 1870 brass memorial to Thomas Riddell, "the Founder of this Church," depicting a foliate cross with the Virgin and Child in the head, and Thomas Riddell holding a model of the church at the foot.