Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A parish church of major importance, with a west tower and four-bay aisled nave, south porch, and three-bay chancel. The building spans the late 13th century to the 15th century, with later alterations including an 18th-century porch rebuild and early 20th-century and circa 1980 restorations.

The church displays a mix of construction materials reflecting different periods and techniques. The tower has random cobbles and squared limestone to its upper section, with limestone ashlar to the lower section, quoins, and diagonal buttresses with offsets. Random cobbles appear in the early section of the nave east wall and west section of the clerestory, whilst the chancel is built of random cobbles and coursed hammer-dressed limestone. The aisles feature limestone ashlar, as do the buttresses and parapets to the chancel, north aisle, clerestory, and tower. Red brick in Flemish bond appears in the porch and south aisle parapet. Limestone ashlar dressings are used throughout. The porch has a pantile roof, with lead roofs to the remainder of the building.

The two-stage tower features a moulded plinth and quoins. Square-headed two-light west window with hoodmould and pointed relieving arch; the belfry has pointed Y-traceried openings, a moulded string course, and coped parapet.

The aisles have moulded plinths, angle buttresses, and buttresses between bays with offsets, a moulded string course, and coped parapets. The north aisle contains a pointed moulded door with hoodmould and head stops, pointed Y-traceried window with restored mullions and brick head, pointed two-light window with reticulated tracery, and pointed two-light window with geometric tracery, both with hoodmoulds and head stops. Square-headed three-light cinquefoiled east and west windows have incised spandrels. The south aisle has a square-headed two-light trefoiled window, an inserted square-headed schoolroom door of circa 1800 beside the porch, two segmental-pointed two-light windows with curvilinear tracery, a pointed three-light east window with curvilinear tracery, hoodmould and head stops, and a square-headed three-light trefoiled west window. An inserted tomb in the south-east bay features a central attached shaft with moulded capital rising to a niche with blind curvilinear tracery and diaper-work, including rosettes and symbols of the evangelists, to the rear. A mutilated canopy with crocketed arches and ornate ribbed vaulting is set beneath a brattished raked string course flanked by truncated buttress shafts.

The nave clerestory contains three pointed two-light cinquefoiled windows with a blocked truncated window to the north-west; a line of the former nave gable is visible at the east end.

The chancel has buttresses to angles and between bays. The south side has a pointed two-light trefoiled window, a blocked chamfered ogee-headed door beneath a pointed three-light window with curvilinear tracery, hoodmould and head stops, with a similar south-east window extended to four lights beneath a skewed arch. The north side has a pair of similar pointed three-light windows and a late 13th-century lancet. A fine pointed five-light east window features curvilinear tracery, moulded reveal, hoodmould, and head stops.

The porch contains a fine re-set pointed moulded arch with hoodmould and head stops supporting an elaborate niche flanked by pinnacled buttress shafts with foliate corbelled base. This supports mutilated figures of a seated virgin and child flanked by angels, beneath a vaulted canopy with crocketed gables. The pointed inner arch has two orders with fillet mouldings, hoodmould, and single head stop, with a board door.

Interior features include a pointed double-chamfered tower arch with shafted inner order, plain moulded capitals and bases, and a blocked opening above. Four-bay arcades of pointed double-chamfered arches rest on octagonal piers and west responds with plain moulded capitals and bases; the south arcade has moulded brackets to the capitals and bases, with arches dying into single chamfers and mutilated head corbels to the east responds. The north-west bay is blocked. A tall pointed double-chamfered chancel arch dies into the walls with sockets for the former rood loft.

The south aisle has a blocked entrance to the former parvis above the south door, moulded corbels (including one carved head) to the east wall, and a pointed moulded trefoiled piscina with hoodmould and projecting moulded bowl, contemporary with an adjoining wall monument. A plain pointed piscina appears in the nave with a head corbel above. The chancel contains a plain pointed chamfered piscina and a pointed chamfered recess cut by the south-east window.

The restored four-bay nave roof features moulded tie-beams, king-posts, and queen-posts.

Monuments and Monuments

An exceptional tomb of circa 1340 in the south aisle, originally free-standing and re-set as a wall tomb, is of outstanding importance. The grave slab bears carved symbols of the four evangelists. A priest effigy in mass vestments lies on a bed of curvilinear tracery beneath a crocketed ogee arch, with angels at head and feet supporting corbelled shafts of a lierne-vaulted canopy fronted by a low segmental arch enriched with curvilinear tracery and foliate carving. Buttress shafts carry mutilated statuettes of female saints in pinnacled niches. The richly-carved display above is subdivided by pinnacled buttresses into five panels with curvilinear tracery, flying angels, foliate decoration, and nodding crocketed ogee arches; the top left section is missing. A series of shields reset above bear arms and symbols of the Passion.

The south aisle also contains a mensa slab and a broken 13th-century carved stone coffin, the latter exhumed from the nave in 1832. A floorslab in the nave central aisle bears a Gothic Latin inscription to William and Margaret Sotteler of 1498; a small 15th to 16th-century floorslab with Gothic inscription lies at the east end. A brass in the north aisle commemorates William and Ann Wright of 1621, with effigies, inscribed plate, and coat of arms; a matrix with indents for border and plates remains beneath gabled canopies. An ashlar wall tablet in the south aisle commemorates Thomas and Susanna Fox of circa 1774.

Fittings include a restored oak chancel screen of five bays with blind-traceried lower panels featuring sub-cusped pointed arches and intersecting tracery above, and pointed two-light upper panels with ornate Perpendicular and curvilinear tracery and sub-cusped crocketed ogee heads. The wider pointed central opening has a Perpendicular-traceried head, with restored fan-vaulting supporting a gallery with ornate frieze. An octagonal panelled pulpit is inscribed "1618". A 15th-century octagonal font features a plain-moulded bowl and base, with a tall pointed eight-sided wooden font cover with moulded base and ball finial. Traces of wall painting appear in the nave, including an inscription to the north and a robed figure to the south.

Money was bequeathed for the chancel east window in 1358. The chancel screen is similar to that at the Church of St Germain, Winestead, Patrington, and the south arcade to that at All Saints Church, Halsham. The south porch door and the tomb in the south aisle, probably from a chantry chapel and re-set after the suppression of chantries in the 16th century, are attributed to the same workshop as the Percy Shrine in Beverley Minster.