Church Of St. Mary

The Church of St. Mary is a Grade I listed building located on Church Street in Huggate. The church dates back to the 12th century, with the nave and aisles constructed during this period, while the chancel was added in the 13th century. The west tower, featuring a recessed spire, was built in the early 14th century, and the south porch and vestry were added in the 19th century. The structure is made of ashlar stone and is topped with slate roofs.

The west tower has dwarf diagonal buttresses and two trefoil-headed lights under pointed arches for each belfry opening. It features a crenellated parapet adorned with a cusped running scroll and blank quatrefoil panels, along with crocketed corner pinnacles. The spire has shallow buttresses with offsets on the diagonal sides, three tiers of crocketing, and a finial cross. The nave includes two three-light square-headed windows with ogee tracery in the south aisle, as well as three 15th-century square-headed windows with cusped tracery in the clerestory. The east gable has a raised coped design and two small rounded-headed windows with shafts, which have been extensively restored but may date back to an earlier phase.

Inside, the church features a pointed three-light east window in the chancel, which has 19th-century Geometrical tracery under a hoodmould. The interior includes a pointed tower arch made up of two chamfered arches that die into the responds. The late 12th-century north arcade has pointed arches of two square orders on polygonal abaci and round piers, while the south arcade, dating from around 1190, features double-chamfered pointed arches on polygonal abaci with leaf ornament and heads in high relief, supported by round piers and keel-moulded responds. There is a blocked door to a former rood loft, which is pointed and has a continuous chamfer. The chancel arch, from the 12th century, consists of three square orders leading to the nave, supported by attached columns with scallop capitals, one of which has a volute. A 15th-century octagonal font, originally having bases for colonnettes that have since been removed, is set on a square plinth with cusped, pierced panels. Additionally, there is a charity board dated 1826 on the west wall of the nave. The tower arch reveals at least two earlier rooflines.