Church Of St Alban

The Church of St Alban is a church dating from the 15th century with Victorian additions and alterations. It is constructed of ashlar and dressed sandstone with a Welsh slate roof. The church comprises a west tower, a three-bay nave with a lean-to vestry in the north-west angle of the tower, and a two-bay chancel with a north organ chamber.

The four-stage west tower has its lower three stages from the 15th century, in the Perpendicular style, with an added 19th-century top stage in the same style. The tower has a chamfered plinth and moulded band, with a pointed-arched doorway on the south side. Offset diagonal buttresses flank a three-light west window with a hoodmould. String courses mark each stage, and the third stage has a blocked belfry window of two cusped lights with a hoodmould. The tall 19th-century upper stage has a blocked two-light west window, while the north and south windows of both the 15th-century and 19th-century belfry stages are louvred. A string course with corner gargoyles and waterspouts sits beneath an embattled parapet topped with eight crocketed pinnacles.

The nave was constructed between 1834 and 1836. It has a chamfered plinth. The central bay projects slightly and includes a moulded sill band to a tall transomed two-light window with Y-tracery beneath a pointed head with a hoodmould; the outer bays have similar windows without hoods. A cornice and parapet with roll-moulded copings rise to a peak over the embattled central gable, with a hipped roof. The added vestry has a three-light mullioned window.

The chancel was built in 1886 and is lower than the nave. It features a blocked south priest’s door with a pointed arch and hoodmould, and 18th and 19th-century headstones are set into the wall. There are two cusped one-light windows with square hoodmoulds (with uncarved stops) to the right. Further headstones appear beneath the east window of three cusped lights with a Tudor-arched head featuring head-carved stops to the hoodmould. The window has shaped kneelers and gable copings with an apex cross.

Inside, a double-chamfered arch leads to the tower. The nave windows have hoodmoulds with head-carved stops; corbels support vaulted aisles rising to a central flat ceiling with gilded bosses. A chamfered, pointed arch marks the transition to the chancel. Stained glass dating from 1880 to 1889 is largely the work of H. M. Barnett of Newcastle. Monuments include 17th and 18th-century brasses on a plaque beneath the tower. A grave slab in the north aisle commemorates Roger de Wickersley (died 1472) and his wife Margaret, with an inscription in early English around their family arms. Three wall tablets to the Yates family of Wickersley Hall, made by Smith of Sheffield, are located to the north-east of the nave. A benefactions board is situated beneath the tower. The remainder of the 15th-century church was demolished in 1833.