Church Of Saint Mary

The Church of Saint Mary is a Grade II* listed building located on Main Street in Skirpenbeck. It features a nave and chancel dating from the 12th century, an 18th-century west tower, and a 19th-century south porch and north vestry. The west tower is constructed of brick, while the nave and chancel are made of coursed rubble with freestone dressings, topped with a slate roof.

The west tower has low stepped brick plinths, round-headed louvred belfry openings with sills, a stepped brick eaves cornice, and a pyramidal roof. The nave consists of three bays and includes two 2-light pointed windows with 19th-century curvilinear tracery, along with a small blocked window at the extreme east. The round-headed south door features two orders, with the outer order being roll moulded and adorned with nook-shafts; the capital on the west shaft is decorated with volutes and saltire crosses. The springers of the inner order are carved with a latticed pattern. The north wall of the nave contains a narrow round-headed slit window with sloping sides to the west, a broader opening under a segmental arch to the east, and a pointed door with a continuous broad chamfer.

The chancel has two lancets flanking a 4-centred door beneath a square hoodmould, with decorated spandrels featuring triangular designs. The east window is square-headed, consisting of three lights with Perpendicular tracery under a hoodmould. Inside, the church is whitewashed, with a plain round-headed chancel arch supported by chamfered imposts. A 12th-century tub font displays intersecting arcades. There is a memorial to Richard Paget and his two children from 1636, featuring a theatrical presentation of their busts, with the notably fat child on the right, flanked by curtains. Below, a tablet bears an extraordinary rhyming inscription filled with puns and wordplay, accompanied by grieving putti on either side.