Church Of St Wilfrid

The Church of St Wilfrid is a parish church dating to the 15th century, although largely rebuilt between 1873 and 1876 to designs by J.S. Crowther. The exception is the west tower, which was restored. It is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with slate roofs and is executed in the Perpendicular style. The church comprises a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, and a chancel with north and south chapels. String courses are variously enriched with carved grotesques.

The three-stage tower has diagonal buttresses, a moulded plinth, string-courses, and an embattled parapet. It features a restored two-centred arched west doorway with a moulded surround, an ogee hood with a crocketed pinnacle, and a restored three-light west window with Perpendicular tracery. Restored two-light louvred belfry windows are also present.

The five-bay nave has pairs of two-light windows with Perpendicular tracery and crocketed corner pinnacles. The aisles are buttressed, and have segmental-pointed three-light windows with hoodmoulds. The second bay of the south aisle features a gabled porch with angle buttresses, a four-centred arched doorway with shafts, carved spandrels, and a statue within a niche topped by a tall crocketed pinnacle. The north aisle has a two-centred arched doorway. The two-bay south chapel and three-bay north chapel, which extend from the aisles (marked by large octagonal pinnacles), have three-light windows with Perpendicular tracery. The chancel has a three-light window to the south, and the east end of the aisles and chancel has windows of four, five, and five lights with Perpendicular tracery.

Inside, the church has five-bay aisle arcades with octagonal columns displaying moulded and embattled caps, and double-chamfered two-centred arches with linked hoodmoulds that have figured stops. Short wall-posts rest on large corbels shaped like angels, each holding shields bearing symbols of the crucifixion. A tall, two-order chancel arch is also present. Re-located screens of 1527, featuring thin tracery and an elaborately carved leaf frieze, occupy the two bays of the north and south chancel arcades. A hammer-beam roof covers the chancel. A number of wall monuments are present, commemorating members of the Tatton and Egerton families, including those to Robert Tatton (died 1689), Mrs Egerton (died 1784), William Egerton (died 1806), and Thomas Worthington (died 1856). The Robert Tatton monument is an aedicule with putti, the Mrs Egerton monument an urn with a carved flower garland, the William Egerton monument depicts a woman reclining on a sarcophagus, and the Thomas Worthington monument features a mourning woman with three sarcophagi beneath a weeping willow.