Church Of Saint Mary The Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a church built between 1914 and 1915, designed by P Currey and CC Thompson. It is constructed of random rubble gritstone with ashlar gritstone dressings, featuring steep Westmorland slate roofs and eyebrow dormers. The church is an example of the Arts and Crafts style.

The plan includes a nave with low north and south aisles, north and south porches, transepts, a chancel, and north and south vestries. The west end features four tall graduated lancet windows, with a relieving arch over the central two, and clasping corner buttresses. The nave has two three-light mullion windows on each side, separated by prominent buttresses, and above these are two two-light eyebrow dormer windows. The porches are topped with half-hipped roofs and have deeply recessed pointed arch doorways with double doors and large iron hinges. The transepts each contain a tall double lancet window and an oval window set within a pointed relieving arch, with angle buttresses. The crossing is topped with a small, louvred bell lantern with a pyramidal hipped roof. The chancel has three graduated lancets within a single pointed relieving arch with a hoodmould, and a lean-to passage with two single lancets linking gabled vestries on either side. The vestries project to the east and each has three graduated lancets. All window openings have external ironwork.

Inside, the walls are whitewashed, contrasted by the gritstone dressings. The nave has three bays with coursed masonry piers, and the aisle windows are set in splayed, shaped moulded surrounds. A pointed chancel arch is flanked by round-headed arches, and there are paired rafters to the roof. Contemporary fittings are present, including carved angels as corbels supporting a rood beam over the chancel arch, a carved chancel screen, a carved wooden pulpit on a stone base dating from 1913, and a stone octagonal font with a carved wooden cover. Stained glass with biblical themes adorns the chancel and transepts, while the nave has simple leaded rectangular windows with stained diamond panes.