Church of St Mary and St Barlok

Church of St Mary and St Barlok

A parish church of ashlar sandstone with leaded roofs, dating primarily to the 12th century with significant additions in the early 14th and mid-15th centuries. The building was restored in 1841 and 1899.

The church comprises a three-bay clerestoried nave with north aisle, an early 15th-century two-stage tower positioned at the centre of the south side flanked by 15th-century chapels, and a large four-bay early 14th-century chancel. The chancel and tower have plinths with moulded copings. All south elevation features moulded stringcourses at eaves level with castellated parapets above. The chancel parapets have an unusual wavy design, while those to the nave and chapels have ridgeback copings. The tower has simple chamfered castellations.

The west elevation displays stepped buttresses at the corners of the nave aisle and chapel, with a central segment-headed cusped three-light window with hoodmould carved with flowers. The north aisle has a taller, more pointed similar three-light window, while the south chapel wall is blank. Above the nave sits another cusped three-light window with segment head and cambered coped parapet.

The north elevation of the nave aisle contains three four-centred arched cusped three-light windows with hoodmoulds and carved label-stops, separated by stepped buttresses. A blocked chamfered four-centred arched doorcase stands at the centre. Above runs a Perpendicular clerestory with four three-light flat-headed windows featuring cusped lights and carved label-stops. The east end of the aisle has a similar three-light window.

The early 14th-century chancel displays four chamfered three-light pointed windows with hoodmoulds and extraordinary intersecting and reticulated tracery featuring stylised flowers at the meeting points of ribs near their tops. A continuous sill band runs below the windows, with a moulded stringcourse above. Thin, deep buttresses with small pinnacles stand between the windows and at either end. The east window is five-light with three incongruous uprights and a moulded edge. Eastern corners of the chancel have gableted angle buttresses. The south chancel elevation mirrors the north, except for a small wavy-headed doorcase with elaborate foliage ironwork below the second window from the east.

To the west, the southeast chapel features a cusped three-light segment-headed window similar to that on the nave's west wall, with a matching window on its south side between stepped buttresses. The southwest chapel has a similar window to its south. The central two-stage tower between them has stepped full-height buttresses on three sides, set inward from the corners. The tower's south front displays a pointed moulded doorcase with returned hood, above which sits a small ogee-headed niche. A small ogee-headed lancet rises above, partly covered by a clockface. A two-light louvred cusped Y-tracery bell opening sits in a four-centred arched deep recess on all sides, with a moulded stringcourse bearing central gargoyles and embattled parapets with corner pinnacles above.

To either side of the tower, the clerestory has single three-light flat-headed windows with cusped lights, incised spandrels, and returned hoodmould with carved label-stops.

Internally, the four-bay north arcade of the 15th century features octagonal piers with moulded capitals and double chamfered arches. Single arches through to the southern chapels have similar arches and capitals on polygonal responds. The central doorcase into the tower has a four-centred arched head deeply moulded to the south side; to the west lies a small pointed doorcase to the staircase. The nave and chancel roofs are Perpendicular with moulded tie beams and central bosses with small ribs also bearing carved bosses. The aisle roof is a 19th-century copy.

The chancel is particularly fine, with north and south windows displaying pointed blind arcading below, featuring the same stylised flowers in tracery as seen externally. Thin triangular-sectioned pilasters between the windows rise to moulded corbels, possibly suggesting that a stone vault was once intended. The east wall has 19th-century cusped wooden panelling below the windows and a 20th-century stone altar. The south wall contains an original piscina with two small corbelled-out bowls set in a niche. The west end of the chancel has a 19th-century rood screen but no chancel arch. The choir stalls feature foliage poppy heads and arcaded Perpendicular panelling to their fronts, much restored.

Two exceptional alabaster table tombs occupy the centre of the chancel. One commemorates Nicholas Fitzherbert, who died in 1473, and the other Ralph and Elizabeth Fitzherbert, who died in 1483 and 1491 respectively. Both feature mourning figures set in crocketed ogee-headed niches with crocketed pilasters between. Both display knights in armour with their feet on lions; Ralph Fitzherbert's lion additionally bears a small figure holding a rosary. The double tomb also features angels holding shields on its west side.

The chancel floor contains several monuments, including a marble slab with an incised figure in a shroud and Latin inscription, and another similar slab depicting a priest beneath an ogee-headed arch. At the centre stands a mid-16th-century family slab with brass plates of donors, their daughters, and an inscription. Several mid-18th-century slate slabs are also present, along with one of 1653 to Anne Fitzherbert.

All chancel windows contain a large quantity of early 14th-century glass. The side windows feature lozenge-patterned glass incorporating stained glass shields, while the east window, which has been restored, displays coats of arms at the top and panels with figures of saints set in plain glass surrounds. The southeast chapel possesses two fine 15th-century stained glass windows depicting donors with their coats of arms beneath architectural canopies.

The southeast chapel also houses a small 15th-century cusped piscina on its south wall and an early 14th-century table tomb of Henry Fitzherbert. The pulpit in the north nave is 19th century, while the font to the west is 14th century, comprising a circular bowl on keeled shafts. The nave contains two 9th-century cross shafts with interlace carving and two table tombs, one of sandstone and one of marble, both to a Fitzherbert. The west window contains a fragment of 16th-century stained glass. The north aisle has another cusped piscina on its east side and several wall memorials to the north, including two fine classical ones dating to 1742 (Thomas Bowyer) and 1785 (Simon and Elizabeth Bowyer).