Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a building of group value, dating in part to the 12th century, with significant additions and rebuilding in the 1840s. The west tower is of the 12th century, later raised, and the south aisle was added around 1300. The remainder of the church was rebuilt in a Romanesque style between 1844 and 1846. The church is constructed of ashlar with slate roofs.

The church consists of a two-stage west tower, a three-bay nave with a south aisle and south porch, a two-bay chancel with a north vestry, a south chapel, and a shallow porch to the priests' door. The west tower has clasping pilaster buttresses. It features a single round-headed slit window to the lower stage and two round-headed belfry openings beneath a corbel table. A corbelled-out parapet sits above. The round-headed west door is of three orders on nook-shafts with scalloped capitals. The inner order is decorated with floral ornament, the central order with beakhead, and the outer order with stylized beakhead, all under a filleted hoodmould with mask stops projecting under a corbelled-out roof.

The nave has a chamfered plinth and pilaster buttresses, with a single round-headed window to the west and two paired round-headed lights with mid-wall shafts to the east, each under a single round-headed chamfered arch. A heavily restored 12th-century south door, also round-headed with orders on nook-shafts and scalloped capitals, features beakhead to the inner order, chevrons to the outer order, and a filleted hoodmould. Similar fenestration is found on the north wall. The chancel has a round-headed window with cusped Y-tracery to the east, a round-headed priests’ door in a projection with nook-shafts and chevron ornament beneath a filleted hoodmould, and a pointed east window of four lights, with tracery in Perpendicular style, under a hoodmould with facestops.

Inside, the round-headed tower arch is of four orders on nook-shafts with scalloped capitals and moulded imposts. The inner order has a double roll to its soffit and a mulberry motif, the second order has chevrons, the third order has abstract beakhead with medallions, faces and a rabbit, and the outer order has chevrons. The west side of the tower arch has a single, square order. Above the arch is a royal coat of arms. The south aisle of around 1300 has shallow bases to quatrefoil filleted piers, with quatrefoil abaci carrying pointed arches of two filleted orders. A hoodmould with carved faces is present on the south side. A fragment of a reclining effigy of Leonora Langdale is in the chancel, with two small heraldic shields. A double wall tablet commemorates Mary Delgarno (died 1693), Lucy Bachelor (died 1694), and Elizabeth Delgarno (died 1724) in a pilastered surround with a coat of arms beneath a broken pediment, and a plain wall tablet commemorates Arthur Delgarno, with the inscription "IN SPEM BEATAE RESURRECTIONIS". A blank quatrefoil with a central, heraldic shield is in the nave's north wall. Three figure sculptures from around 1190, originally from the ruined church of Saint Peter, Holme-on-the-Wolds, are inserted into the west wall of the south aisle: one of Christ with a resurrection banner facing a demon, one of Saint Paul with a sword, and one of Saint Peter with a key.