Church of St Matthew

The Church of St Matthew is an Anglican church located in Pentrich, dating back to the 12th century. It has undergone significant alterations in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, with a restoration in 1859. The church is constructed of coursed rubble sandstone with ashlar gritstone dressings, and features leaded roof coverings with coped gables. It comprises a west tower, a nave with clerestory, north and south aisles, a south aisle porch, a chancel, and a vestry.

The square, 12th-century tower was raised and re-faced in the 14th century, featuring shallow plinth, angle buttresses with set-offs, and ashlar crenellations to the parapet. The bell stage has two-light Perpendicular windows with ogee heads to the lights. The Perpendicular porch has raking crenellations to the gable, an archway with a trefoil niche above, and a doorway with a chamfered string and stops. A two-light chamfer mullioned window is located on the east wall.

The south aisle includes shallow stepped buttresses between windows, two- and three-light ogee leaded windows beneath flat lintels and a diagonal buttress to the south-east corner. Two-light windows mirror those on the side wall at the east end. Above the clerestory is a molded string, with five two-light windows, recessed chamfer mullions with cinquefoil heads to the lights beneath a continuous string course which delineates the parapet, dropping as hoodmould and pendant finials to define the opening.

The chancel's south wall has two three-light windows with segmental heads flanking an elaborate ogee-headed hood over a four-centred arched doorway. A stepped diagonal buttress is present at the corner. The east window is of five lights, set beneath a depressed pointed arch. A 19th-century vestry is attached to the north wall, featuring a chamfered pointed arched doorway. The north aisle's windows are set within earlier rubble masonry, featuring ogee lights within flat-headed surrounds. A doorway has a quoined surround, a hoodmould with stops, and a smaller two-light window is at the west end.

Inside, a single-chamfer pointed arch defines the tower. Five bay nave arcades display circular piers with simply molded circular capitals of two designs, featuring a water-holding mould to bases standing on square pads. The semicircular chamfered arcade arches have simple hoodmoulds. The chancel arch is pointed and rises from semicircular imposts. A Romanesque font with arcade molding to the rim sits on a pedestal dated 1662. A painted glass window by C.W. Whall from around 1915 is located in the chancel’s north wall. The south aisle’s east end features painted glass by Morris and Company. Wall monuments to Edward Horn (d.1764) and Madam Mower (d.1776) are on the chancel's north wall.