Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church with origins dating back to the Norman period, but the earliest surviving parts of the current structure are from the 13th century. Much of the church was rebuilt in the 15th century when the south aisle, nave, and north aisle were widened. The chancel was reconstructed in the early 16th century and again in 1862 by J P Holden, and the south porch was replaced in 1923.

The church is constructed of red ashlar sandstone with slate and lead roofs. It consists of a nave and aisles, a south transept (originally a chantry chapel), a south porch, a west tower, a chancel with side chapels and vestries. The nave and aisles feature weathered plinths, buttresses, and castellated parapets. The south aisle has a gabled porch in the first bay and a gabled transept in the fourth. The aisle windows are 4-light with Perpendicular tracery (5-light on the north aisle), with tall 5-light clerestory windows above. The chancel, rebuilt in 1862-3, has a 4-bay clerestory, a 5-light east window, a lean-to roof to the south chapel, a pitched roof to the north chapel, and raked castellations with a cross finial and corner pinnacles. The castellated west tower has weathered diagonal buttresses, a west door, clock faces, a 3-light west window, 3-light belfry openings, and crocketed corner pinnacles.

Inside, the nave arcade is double-chamfered, resting on columns with chamfered projections and thin hollows in the diagonals, with plain capitals bearing elementary shields. Niches are carved into the north columns. The church retains a fine 15th-century roof structure with carved bosses at the intersections of moulded beams. The transept arch is double-chamfered with ovolo mouldings. A medieval studded oak door is present, along with a heavily restored pulpit incorporating early carvings, pews, stalls, a 15th-century stone font and an alabaster reredos with mosaic panels from 1883. Stained glass includes a window incorporating 16th-century Flemish glass, and glass by Lavers & Barraud from the 1860s. A monument features recumbent stone effigies of Richard Brereton, his wife, and child on a chest tomb with square angle balusters dating to around 1600. Also present are an Anglo-Saxon cross shaft, a 15th-century lantern cross, and other early remnants. The church is noted for its fine medieval work, particularly the 15th-century coffered nave roof.