Church Of St Matthew

The Church of St Matthew, built in 1865 by E.G. Paley, is a Grade II listed building located on Church Street. It is constructed from coursed rubblestone with ashlar dressings and features slate roofs with stone-coped gables and finials. The church is designed in the Early Decorated style and includes a chancel, north vestry, south-east tower, nave, transepts, and a west porch. The east end showcases a three-light window with plate tracery, while the chancel has a small three-light window to the south and two lancets to the north above the vestry. The south-east tower consists of four stages, complete with a parapet and pinnacles, a stair turret in the south-east corner, and small lancets. It also features two-light louvred bell-openings with shafts. The transept ends have paired lancets with cinquefoils above and single-light round-arched windows on the sides. The nave contains two-light windows with plate tracery, and the west end is supported by massive buttresses, featuring a gabled west porch and a rose window above, which is formed of a sexfoil surrounded by a circle of trefoils.

Inside, the church includes a stone reredos in the chancel, with stone creed and commandment panels on the sides, double sedilia, and a scissor brace roof. The fittings also feature elaborately carved choir stalls, an organ front, and a screen, along with a Minton tile floor. The wide nave and transepts are equipped with a carved stone pulpit, openwork pews, and a west gallery with an arcaded front and original pews. A carved stone font rests on colonnettes. The west end is now screened off under the gallery with a glazed screen, although the stairs to the gallery remain. The roofs of the nave and transepts are supported by arched braces to collars rising from stone corbels. The church is adorned with richly coloured and finely detailed stained glass in the east end, transept ends, and the nave rose window. This church is well-designed and features high-quality fittings and glass.