Church of St Mary

Church: The Church of St Mary is a building primarily dating to the 1824-1835 period, with a west tower and porch built between 1527 and 1558. It is constructed of coursed buff sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings and a lead roof. The church consists of a west tower and porch, a nave with two aisles, and a single-bay chancel.

The west tower is of four stages, with angle buttresses and a castellated parapet, showing the bases of eight pinnacles. An ornate wrought iron weather vane, originally from Stockport parish church, sits atop the tower. The west window is of three lights with straight mullions, and a three-light round-headed bell opening is present, with louvres. A sundial is located on the south face. A castellated porch, also with crocketted pinnacles and a central cross, originally stood on the south side of the nave. The aisles feature buttresses dividing bays of three-light windows with intersecting tracery, all castellated as the porch. The clerestory has three-light lancet windows in square bevelled openings. The chancel mirrors the aisles, but displays a three-light mullioned and transomed east window with trefoil cusped heads, likely a later 19th-century addition.

Inside, the arcades feature four bays with plain octagonal piers supporting four-centred arches. Wooden galleries are located within the arcades and behind the tower. The original early 16th-century wooden ceiling over the nave displays heavily moulded, slightly cambered tie beams, with applied foliage and angels at their centres, springing from moulded wooden corbels. Flat floral bosses are found at the intersection of the moulded members, and a ram's head (the arms of the Legh family) is at the ceiling’s centre. Aisle and clerestory windows contain panels of medieval continental glass, including a fine Dutch/Swiss east window dated 1535, depicting scenes from the life of Christ. This original glass was moved to Lyme Park in 1835. A fine Gothic, painted and gilded organ case from 1836, crafted by Samuel Renn, is a prominent feature. A white marble memorial plaque to Thomas Legh, signed A. Gatley Rome 1858 is also present. Later additions include an ornate Gothic stone pulpit and font, both dated 1868.