Church Of St Mary

The Church of St. Mary is a parish church located on Church Lane in Swillington. It dates from the late 14th century or early 15th century, with the tower rebuilt in 1884. The church is constructed from magnesian limestone ashlar, while the tower is made of gritstone, and it features a stone slate roof.

The structure includes a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, and a chancel that has a 19th-century vestry on the north side. The tower is designed in a three-stage Perpendicular style, complete with diagonal buttresses. It has a moulded west door with a crocketed hoodmould, a three-light window above it, and a small medieval niche that has been relocated above this window. The tower also features two-light louvred belfry windows and a corbel table supporting an embattled parapet adorned with crocketed corner pinnacles.

The aisles are decorated with five bays and buttresses, each featuring two-centred arched two-light windows with restored mullions and tracery. The south aisle includes a gabled porch at the second bay, which has a chamfered two-centred outer arch and hoodmould, along with a restored inner doorway that has fielded panel doors. The nave contains four square-headed two-light windows with chamfered mullions, and the east end of the south aisle has a three-light window with reticulated tracery.

The chancel, which is three bays and buttressed, has a restored segmental-headed priest door in the center, two two-light windows with mouchettes in the heads to the right, and a 19th-century three-light window with intersecting tracery to the left. The large 19th-century east window consists of three lights with similar tracery.

Inside the church, there are five-bay arcades supported by octagonal columns with double-chamfered arches, and a similar chancel arch. The chancel features a roof made of four cambered and brattished beams with short king-posts and stout curved struts supporting low-pitched principal rafters. Notable interior elements include a cinquefoil-headed triple sedilia, a trefoil-headed piscina with a projecting bowl, and numerous wall monuments dedicated to the Lowther family, most of which date from the 18th century. Additionally, in the south wall of the south aisle, there is a large cusped ogee-headed recess that contains the remains of an oak effigy displayed in a glass case.