Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a Gothic Revival church built between 1869 and 1873, designed by Paley and Austin. The church incorporates a 1516 tower and a 1910 vestry. Constructed from hammer-dressed sandstone with a lead roof, the church is built in the Perpendicular style. It consists of a nave, chancel, aisles, a side chapel and a west tower.

The main body of the church is six bays wide for the nave and two bays for the chancel, featuring weathered buttresses, a weathered plinth and a castellated parapet. Each bay has a three-light aisle window with rectilinear tracery and hood mould, and two-light flat-headed clerestory windows. A statue is set within a canopied niche in the gable of the porch. The transition between the nave and chancel, and the aisle to the side chapel, is marked by heavier buttresses, a diagonally set door to the side chapel, and enrichment to the parapet. The chancel ends with octagonal pinnacled piers and has a raked parapet and a large east window. The vestry, added in 1910, is a virtually free-standing structure to the north. The tower, also castellated, features a 16th-century studded oak west door set beneath an elliptical arch, weathered diagonal buttresses, a three-light west window, and paired two-light belfry openings below clock faces.

Inside, the church displays a 16th-century tower arch and evidence of the original roofline and springing point of the nave arcade. Octagonal piers support double-chamfered nave arcade arches. Most of the church has tie-beam and hammer-beam roof trusses, except for the north aisle, which reuses timberwork from an earlier church, featuring moulded cambered tie beams and cross beams. Notable features include a stone font, sedilia and piscina. Timber fittings include an altar dating back to 1705, created by Thomas Naylor in the Lady Chapel. Also from the previous church are oak canopies originally from the wardens’ seats (dated 1686) and an 18th-century brass candelabra. Encaustic tiles are found in the choir and sanctuary. The fittings were largely designed by the architects and made by Messrs Hatch of Lancaster. The elaborate chancel altar and reredos, dating from 1890, were also designed by the architects, and painted and gilded by Shrigley and Hunt. Stained glass windows in the Lady Chapel, south aisle, and several in the north aisle were created by Shrigley and Hunt between 1887 and 1933; others are by Kempe, dating from 1905.

This church exemplifies the grand style of Paley and Austin and represents an early application of the Perpendicular style. The original fittings are well-preserved, including the nave benches, with the brilliantly painted altar and reredos providing a striking contrast to the darker oak elements.