Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This church at Sprotbrough is a substantial medieval building of 13th and 14th-century date, with alterations and additions from the 15th and 16th centuries. It is constructed of rubble and ashlar limestone beneath asphalt roofs. The church comprises a west tower, a three-bay aisled nave with north and south porches, a two-bay chancel, and a north vestry.

The west tower has a 14th-century lower part featuring a chamfered plinth and diagonal, offset buttresses flanking an ogee-headed west door with hoodmould. Above this is a quadrant-moulded two-light window with a trefoil-headed loop over it. An offset occurs below and above a lozenge-shaped clock. The upper stage is in the Perpendicular style, with paired two-light belfry openings with cusped, blind panels beneath louvred upper lights sharing hoodmoulds. Blind tracery adorns the parapet, which features gargoyles and pinnacles.

The nave has a chamfered plinth and diagonal buttresses to the west. The south porch has a timbered gable and stone roof, with a quadrant-moulded doorway within a hoodmould. The aisle features square-headed, double-chamfered three-light windows and a four-light window, with a string course beneath an embattled parapet. Four clerestorey windows of three Tudor-arched lights are set in square-headed recesses, and the parapet has pinnacle bases. The north side is similar, with an ashlar porch having a gable with a plaque dated 1630 and a quadrant-moulded pointed arch to the door within.

The chancel has a south priest's door flanked by buttresses and by a Y-tracery window, with double-cavetto-moulded windows and hoodmoulds. West buttresses are now built onto by the aisle end walls. A two-storey north vestry has a two-light mullioned window beneath a pointed single light and a shallow-pitched north gable. Two-light windows flank the chancel, recently renewed. Angle buttresses flank an early 20th-century four-light east window set within the jambs of a 13th-century opening. The chancel has a plain parapet with copings and a truncated east gable.

Interior features include three-bay north and south arcades with octagonal piers, moulded capitals, and double-chamfered pointed arches. A half-round north-east respond with an early capital, probably reused, is present. The double-chamfered tower arch is similar to the chancel arch, which has half-octagonal responds to the inner order and a hoodmould. The chancel contains 13th-century sedilia with three seats divided by paired shafts and a hoodmould, and a piscina to its east with a hoodmould featuring head-carved stops. A straight-headed image niche is set in the chancel north wall.

The 16th-century nave roof features moulded, cambered tie beams and carved bosses, matching the aisle roofs. The furnishings and monuments are notable. The south aisle chapel houses a late 13th-century effigy of a knight in a 14th-century cusped, ogee recess, and a later female effigy now with a 20th-century canopy. A wall monument in the north aisle commemorates William Wrightson of Cusworth (died 1760). The chancel floor contains fine brasses to William Fitzwilliam (1474) and his wife, along with 18th and 19th-century slabs to the Copley family. An incised alabaster table-tomb is dedicated to Philip Copley (died 1577) and his wife, with a wall monument to Leonellis Copley (died 1776).

The furnishings include a 20th-century octagonal pulpit that reuses old panels and has an 18th-century tester, 16th-century bench ends, and an unusual rood screen with medieval shafts and later Decorated-style tracery. Two misericords are present in the adjoining stalls. A Jacobean communion rail features obelisks. A 14th-century stone seat in the chancel has a traceried end panel and a bearded caryatid beneath the seat. Some of the early 20th-century furnishings were designed by Comper.