Church Of Saint Mary

Church of Saint Mary

This church, dating from 1858–61, was built by J L Pearson for the third Lord Hotham. It is constructed in ashlar with slate roofs throughout and exemplifies the geometrical Gothic style of the period.

The church comprises a 3-stage west tower with spire, a 3-bay nave with a 2-bay south porch, 2-bay north and south transepts, and a 3-bay chancel with 2-bay north and south chapels and a north vestry.

The west tower stands on a moulded plinth with a moulded band featuring blank quatrefoils. Pilaster buttresses above also carry blank quatrefoils with corbelled offsets. A small 2-light pointed window with geometrical tracery sits beneath a hoodmould. The belfry stage contains 3-light pointed belfry openings with elaborate mid-wall shafts and bar tracery under gablets with blank quatrefoils. A balustrade of trefoil-headed openings with a filleted handrail runs across at sill level. Clasping polygonal buttresses at each quoin feature blank arcading to the upper portions, crowned by octagonal spires that flank the belfry openings. A carved corbel table of 5 ornate bands—comprising foliage, rosettes, and cusped zigzag—supports a low parapet. The octagonal spire carries 2 tiers of 2-light lucarnes with geometrical tracery under gablets, each flanked by short pinnacles and finials, and is topped with a weather-vane. The pointed 4-light west window displays geometrical tracery, nook-shafts, and ball-flower ornament.

The south porch is approached by 6 steps with flanking walls and ramped tubular bronze handrails. The main door is pointed, mounted on paired nook-shafts with foliage carving to the capitals and turned bases. Paired pointed niches with muntins occupy the spandrels, set under crocketed gablets with finials. The gable contains paired trefoil-headed lights with a quatrefoil above, all under a pointed arch flanked by blank quatrefoils. Carved leaves decorate the raked cornice.

The north and south elevations each have 4 trefoil-headed openings on attached shafts with ornate capitals. Lizards and griffins appear on the hoodmoulds, with carved foliage adorning the corbel table. A crested stone ridge runs along the roof. A moulded plinth, buttress with offsets and gablet, and moulded sill band run across both elevations.

The nave features two 3-light pointed windows with geometrical tracery and nook-shafts bearing carved capitals under plain hoodmoulds. The north wall has similar but plainer fenestration. A carved corbel-table supports the steeply-pitched roof, which has a coped gable and brattished ridge.

The transepts rest on a high double-hollow-chamfered plinth and are flanked by clasping buttresses with carved offsets. The south transept's principal window is pointed with 4 lights, geometrical tracery, nook-shafts, and a hoodmould. A springer-level band of blank quatrefoils and circles runs across, with a 3-light pointed window to the gable featuring attached shafts beneath blank quatrefoils with surrounding foliage. A cross finial crowns the gable. The north transept is essentially similar, differing only in the tracery of its principal window.

The chancel features clasping buttresses and a projecting gabled porch to the south chapel with a boarded door under a cinquefoil head in a pointed opening with attached shafts bearing foliage capitals. Foliage carving beneath billet ornament decorates the eaves. The pointed east window has 3 lights with geometrical tracery, flanked at springer level by blank quatrefoils with rosettes to centres. The east bay has a sill band of quatrefoils in lozenges beneath a tripartite window: 2 centre lights flanked by single lights, all pointed with geometrical tracery. The centre light carries a hoodmould and the outer lights have gablets. The muntins between lights display blank arcading and poppy-head finials. A foliage band adorns the eaves. The chancel's east wall receives bands that run across its full width; the upper two are interrupted by a pointed 5-light window with geometrical tracery flanked by blank trefoil-headed openings under gablets with muntins carrying blank tracery and finials. The gable displays lozenges with blank quatrefoils and rosettes flanking a spherical triangle with geometrical tracery. Ball-flower ornament decorates the raked cornices, and a cross finial tops the coped gable.

The north chapel has a trefoil-headed door under a nodding cinquefoil head and a circular window with tracery of 5 quatrefoils in circles to the gable.

The north vestry contains a pointed north window of 2 lights with geometrical tracery under a hoodmould on nook-shafts with circular abaci and bases. A springer-level band of quatrefoils runs beneath.

The interior of the south porch has a ribbed vault. The principal characteristic of the interior is pointed or trefoil-headed blank arcading with ornate capitals to nook-shafts on all plain surfaces, particularly elaborate in the chancel's east bay. The tower arch is pointed with 2 orders on nook-shafts, supporting a white brick vault with a central ribbed ring in the tower chamber. The nave features blank arcading of paired trefoil-headed openings on attached shafts, with clustered vaulting-shafts (though the church body is not vaulted) at each bay division. The principal shafts rest on carved corbels. The north and south transept arches are pointed, mounted on paired attached shafts with carved capitals and moulded bases; pierced quatrefoils occupy the spandrels. A carved cornice of quatrefoils, scallops, and foliage runs the full length of the nave on both sides. The chancel arch mirrors the transept arches and is inscribed with the text "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord." A quatrefoil opening flanked by small pointed windows with attached shafts sits above. Paired pointed arches connect the transepts to the chancel chapels, each featuring a slender shaft under a quatrefoil surrounded by foliage bosses, all beneath a pointed arch with attached shafts. The north and south chancel arcades each contain 2 pointed arches on paired attached and central shafts with ornate carved capitals and moulded bases under hoodmoulds stopped with foliage. Attached shafts at bay intervals rise to an elaborate cornice with foliage and geometrical ornament. The east bay has pointed blank arcading on attached shafts covering all walls, with foliage decorating the arch fascias and hoodmoulds throughout. A sill band of carved foliage sits above. Detached geometrical arcading frames the north and south windows, while the east window features attached shafts with annuli. Nail-head ornament appears on the hoodmould.

The south chancel chapel serves as the Hotham family chapel. A central monument to Sir John Hotham (died 1689), attributed to Bushnell, comprises a reclining white marble figure on a black marble slab supported by 4 kneeling Virtues on a raised black marble base. Beneath the effigy is a skeleton. Eight white marble tablets with plain black lettering line the chapel walls. Funeral hatchments hang here and in the transepts.

The font consists of a quatrefoil tub on a central cylindrical pier with short clustered shafts.