Church of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a building of the 14th century, with significant additions and alterations made in the early 16th century, the early 17th century, and in 1856 and 1860. A general restoration took place between 1877 and 1878. It is a building of group value. Constructed primarily of ashlar buff and red sandstone, the roof is covered with Kerridge stone-slates. The church comprises a four-bay nave and aisles, a three-bay chancel, and a massive four-stage tower with a south porch.

The porch features diagonal buttresses, crocketed pinnacles on the gable, and a segmentally arched entrance with a studded oak door and iron strap hinges behind a pointed arch. A three-light window with trefoil cusped heads is found in the south aisle, alongside a two-storey Stanley pew with rectangular windows of five round-headed lights, accessed by a flight of stone steps. The clerestory features simple two-light windows. The chancel, executed in the Decorated style, has an east window with reticulated tracery. The north aisle incorporates an inserted Jacobean dormer, likely to illuminate a three-decker pulpit. The tower is buttressed diagonally with bands at each stage. It has a pointed arched doorcase and a Victorian Decorated west window. A simple two-light window is found in the third stage and a pair of louvred two-light Y-traceried bell openings reside above, supported by gargoyles and topped with an embattled parapet.

Inside, four-bay arcades are supported on octagonal piers with weakly pointed arches. The south aisle includes the Stanley flying pew, which features Jacobean arcaded panelling with painted heraldry, a 18th-century Gothick hood, further panelling containing medieval carving, and a coved pyramidal Jacobean strapwork ceiling with a pendant. A 18th-century musician's gallery, with the arms of the Stanleys and other local landowners, now houses an organ dating from 1875. The chancel contains two Victorian recumbent effigies: the first Lord Stanley by Richard Westmacott jnr, and the second Lord Stanley by George Nelson, incorporating cosmatiesque work and a brass panel depicting Lady Stanley and her ten children. A 14th-century font, with a plain circular bowl and carved head bosses on a cluster of four columns, resembles a font at Prestbury. The nave features a panelled barrel roof with cambered moulded tiebeams, while the aisles have moulded panelled lean-to roofs.

The Stanley flying pew is unique in Cheshire. The tower’s design shares similarities with that at Mobberley, suggesting it may also be the work of Richard Platt.