Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a church of eclectic design, built in 1863 by John Kirk of Huddersfield, commissioned by Joseph Hirst of Wilshaw. It is constructed from hammer-dressed stone with a pitched slate roof, and features a symmetrical plan comprising the church to the east and a former Sunday School to the west, linked by a large vestibule and surmounted by a large square tower with a very steep pyramidal roof covered in lozenge slating and decorative ironwork.

The church’s architecture incorporates German Romanesque forms, a French Gothic style in its elaborate tower roof, and Italian Renaissance details in the windows. A large, central porch on the north side features panelled double doors and a semi-circular fanlight with turned radial glazing bars. The doorway has colonettes with foliated capitals, a moulded and decorated arch, and an oculus with a stone wheel in the gable apex. The 5-bay nave has round-arched, two-light windows with a circular head and three detached colonnettes to each window, featuring archivolts. The single bay of the chancel side windows is similar, but lacking the circular head. The east window is a three-light design with a detached outer skin, four colonnettes, and two circles, each with a stone wheel. The hood mould is adorned with carved angels. The 5-bay Sunday School to the right is similarly detailed but plainer. A warden's house, formerly the vicarage, is situated at the west end with an addition to match the chancel. The central tower includes an octagonal stair tower on the south side, topped with a pointed lozenge-slated roof and spiral stone stairs. The tower has two tall, round arched cross windows on each side, featuring archivolts, colonnettes in the reveals and as a central mullion, a circular head, and round arched lights. Louvred lucarnes are in the roof of the tower.

Inside, a round chancel arch sits on clustered responds. A gallery to the rear has a well-carved oak front with panels of different foliage patterns. The roof is an arched collar beam construction. A barrel-vaulted wooden roof covers the chancel. The pulpit, reading desk, and organ case are elaborately carved in oak, designed in a round-arched style with foliage and spiral decorated colonnettes. The choir stall fronts are equally well-carved, each with three wheels and carvings of musical instruments in the spandrels. A carved oak lectern, dating from 1902, is also present. A memorial to Joseph Hirst from 1876 is a marble low relief carving depicting the legend of the Good Samaritan, set within an elaborate, well-carved stone surround. The east window is by Clayton and Bell, commemorating Mary, the only child of Joseph and Eleanor Hirst, and was likely created around 1863. The vestibule beneath the tower and the Sunday School are relatively plain.