Church Of St Mary The Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Gothic style church dating to 1877-86, designed by W.G. Habershon. The nave was extended in 1907. It is constructed of coursed, rock-faced red sandstone with yellow sandstone dressings, and has blue slate roofs with green slate bands. The church has a cruciform plan including an uncompleted crossing tower, with north and south aisles extended to link with an early 20th century narthex at the west end. The tall, three-bay nave features pilasters and segmental-pointed clerestory windows with three cusped lights. A tall, stepped three-light west window is set above the narthex. The aisles, now five bays, have windows of two 2-centred arched lights with set-in shafts and hoodmoulds and foliated stops. The narthex on the west side has a 2-centred arched, double-chamfered doorway framed by Perpendicular-style pilasters, and two similar entrances facing west. The transepts, almost as tall as the nave, have angle buttresses and large, stepped three-light windows in their gable walls with slender shafts and two orders of moulding. The chancel has a single narrow lancet window on the north side, and a large three-light east window similar to those of the transepts. The crossing tower, which rises only slightly above the nave and transepts, has small lancets near the corners and a stepped embattled parapet in lighter masonry. The interior has painted brick walls. The three-bay arcades have quatrefoil columns with shafts and 2-centred arches, stepped rather than chamfered. A similar arch opens to the narthex at the west end. The crossing arches are tall and double-chamfered, rising from clustered piers, and the pulpit is integrated with the north-eastern pier. The roof is a hammerbeam design with trusses rising from large, moulded and foliated corbels. The chancel houses an organ and a piscina in the north wall, and sedilia in the south wall.