Church Of St Mary The Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade II* listed building, constructed in 1868 by architect G E Street for Sir Tatton Sykes. It is built from ashlar and features flat clay roofing tiles, showcasing the Gothic Revival style. The church has a 4½-bay nave that includes a west bellcote and a south porch, along with a 2-bay chancel and a north vestry.

The nave is characterized by a chamfered plinth, a scroll-moulded string, and buttresses on both the east and west sides. It features 2-light pointed windows with tracery in the Decorated style, located at the west and center, each with a stopped hood-mould beneath a relieving arch. To the east, there is a 4-light square-headed window with cusped tracery. The south door is pointed and consists of 2 orders in Early English style, complete with nook shafts, dog-tooth detailing, and a stopped hood-mould. The raised coped gables are topped with Celtic cross finials.

The south porch contains a door with hollow-chamfered mouldings and a cinquefoil head, along with a stopped hood-mould and a raised coped gable featuring a cross finial. The bell turret has a square lower stage topped by a low octagonal broach spire, which includes 2-light belfry openings with mid-wall shafts and volutes to the capitals, as well as a round sound-hole in the gablet. The spire also features 2-light trefoil-headed lucarnes on its cardinal elevations, finished with a cross finial.

The chancel has a chamfered plinth, diagonal buttresses, and a scroll-moulded string. It includes a 2-light pointed window with tracery in the Curvilinear style and a stopped hood-mould under a relieving arch. The pointed 3-light east window features intersecting tracery enclosing trefoils, also under a relieving arch.

Inside, the church has 2 circular piers at the west end with round bases and abaci that support pointed double-chamfered arches, leading to a stilted arch above where the bellcote is located. The nave features a principal-rafter roof with arched braces, side purlins, and windbraces, all painted with geometrical and stylized floral designs. An elaborate chancel screen consists of 5 trefoil-headed arches under crocketed gablets, supported by twisted marble columns with a central cross finial. The font is a sexfoil design in the Geometrical style, featuring blank tracery on each lobe, supported by colonnettes with annuli, round bases, and abaci.