Church Of St Stephen

The Church of St Stephen is a church built between 1870 and 1871 by JM and H Taylor. It is constructed from coursed snecked rubble stone with ashlar dressings and features slate roofs with stone-coped gables and finials. The church is designed in the Decorated style and includes buttresses and diagonal buttresses with set-offs. The layout consists of a chancel with a north vestry, a nave with a wide north aisle and a north porch, and a west tower. The east end features a three-light window with two lancets to the south of the chancel. To the north, there is a massive stack for the vestry, which has a hipped roof, single- and two-light windows, and a doorway to the north. The wide gabled north aisle has patterned roof slates, two- and three-light windows, and a north porch with a roof made of alternating bands of plain and fishscale slates. The west end has a three-light window. On the south side of the nave, there are two- and three-light windows. The west tower, located at the end of the nave, consists of four stages and features a west door with a two-light window above, lancets on the sides, clock faces on the stage above, and louvred bell-openings at the top stage, which is adorned with gargoyles and a battlemented parapet.

Inside, the chancel includes a carved wood reredos, stalls, and a low screen, along with a scissor brace roof. The sanctuary is marked by two trusses with cusping and houses a Harrison organ. The windows contain stained glass. The nave features a carved stone pulpit, openwork pews, and a carved lectern, with a hammer beam roof supported by stone corbels. The north arcade has quatrefoil piers with moulded or elaborately carved foliage capitals, and the roof has scissor brace collar trusses on arch braces rising from stone corbels. There is a carved font on colonnettes with a carved font cover. Stained glass is present in the west window of the north aisle and in the easternmost windows of the nave and aisle, while other windows display patterns of flowers in coloured glass and leading. The openwork pews in the north aisle are similar to those in the nave. The church presents a carefully considered picturesque exterior, with many contemporary fittings remaining inside.