Church Of The Holy Ascension

The Church of the Holy Ascension is a parish church built in 1867 by Ewan Christian, which incorporates masonry from earlier medieval and 18th-century churches. The chancel was decorated in 1890 by Messrs W 0 Powell of London and Lincoln, while the nave was decorated in 1895. The church is constructed of limestone and ironstone ashlar and features a Westmorland slate roof, showcasing the Gothic Revival style.

The church has a three-bay nave with a south porch and a west bell-cote, along with a single-bay apsidal chancel that has a vestry adjoining its north side. The nave includes a plinth and buttresses, with two-light and three-light segmental pointed traceried windows. On the west side, there are single traceried lancets flanking a central buttress that supports a projecting bell-cote, which features a twin shouldered-arch opening and a pierced roundel above, topped with a coped gable and an ashlar cross finial. The chancel has a stepped plinth and a sill stringcourse, with single and twin trefoiled lancets that have hood-moulds.

Inside, the church features a pointed moulded chancel arch on shafted responds with foliate capitals, a collared scissor-beam nave roof, and a ribbed vaulted chancel roof. The chancel arch, roofs, and frieze at the top of the nave wall all display rich polychrome painted decoration. There are late 18th-century and early 19th-century marble wall tablets dedicated to the Holgate family at the west end of the nave, as well as an ornate 19th-century font.