Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin

Parish Church. Built in the 14th and 15th centuries, with 18th-century work and major restoration in 1880 by F J Robinson. The church is constructed in coursed squared sandstone and ashlar with Welsh slate roofs featuring decorative ridge tiles. It has a chamfered plinth, plain and castellated parapets, and comprises a west tower, aisled nave, south porch, chancel and north vestry. The south aisle continues alongside part of the chancel.

The west tower rises in two stages divided by a chamfer to the west. Its west elevation displays a two-light window of around 1300 with Y-tracery set in a deeply splayed surround. The south side of the tower is embraced by the aisle, whilst the north side bears re-set carved 12th-century chevron decoration. Rectangular slit bell-openings pierce three sides. Above these rises a recessed octagonal stone spire set behind battlements, with tall gabled lucarnes featuring Y-tracery and tiny lancet lucarnes positioned high up.

The north aisle is lean-to in form, with a plain Early English west lancet and two heavy squat buttresses. To the north stands another buttress and a round-arched doorway said to be Norman, though its simple continuous roll moulding suggests a 17th or 18th-century date. Plank double doors feature elaborate 19th-century hinges. To the left are two pairs of paired lancets in deep chamfered surrounds with heads at the springing of the two central arches. The clerestory contains three two-light windows under flat arches with cusped lancet lights.

The gabled north vestry has a segmental arched doorway to the west, a three-light window with reticulated tracery to the north and a low window with Y-tracery to the east, all 19th-century work. Paired polygonal chimney stacks rise from half way up the gable, with foliage stops where they interrupt the coping.

The chancel features to the north a window of two cusped depressed ogee lights under a flat arch. Angle buttresses frame the chancel, and a 19th-century three-light east window with intersecting tracery combines Decorated and Perpendicular motifs. The south side of the chancel displays a three-light window under a flat arch with the unusual tracery motif of cusped depressed ogees, inverted above with lozenge shapes above again. A similar window exists at Repton Church.

The gabled south aisle has a pair of two-light east windows with Y-tracery and elongated trefoils. Gableted buttresses divide the bays on the south side. All windows feature flat arches. The first from the east is three lights with reticulated tracery, followed by two two-light windows with cusped lancet and trefoil motifs, and a similar window beyond the gabled south porch. The porch entrance displays roll and filleted mouldings with nook shafts and a hoodmould on foliage stops. Plank doors with scrolled C-hinges are 19th-century. The clerestory matches that on the north side.

Interior

Three-bay 14th-century arcades have octagonal piers and semi-octagonal responds with moulded capitals. The south arcades have single chamfered arches, whilst the north arcades bear double chamfered arches. The tower arch features a step and chamfer, with the chamfered order on moulded corbels. No division exists between nave and chancel.

A two-bay chancel north arcade has an octagonal pier and double chamfered, almost triangular, arches. One bay to the south has a 19th-century, almost round arch. These arches are double chamfered with the inner order on moulded corbels, similar to the tower arch.

The roof is 19th-century work featuring arched principal trusses on corbels. Above the tower arch stands a 19th-century cusped wheel window decorated with nailhead pattern.

A plain octagonal font, possibly from the 17th century, survives. A recess in the south wall of the tower contains a broken effigy of a knight of around 1375. Beneath the tower lies the mid-13th-century headless effigy of a knight, a late 14th-century alabaster effigy of a knight, and a monument to Sir Henry Every (died 1709), erected around 1734 by Thomas Carter the elder. This monument features a semi-reclining figure in Roman attire, originally with a pyramid behind.

A single-chamfered piscina appears in the south wall of the chancel. Tiled floors and most furnishings date from around 1880. Several 19th-century stained glass windows survive, notably the east window of around 1862, which displays quite strong dramatic line and modelling.