Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church built in 1844–1846 by Stevens of Derby in the Decorated Gothic style, with a late 19th-century northern organ bay added subsequently. The building is constructed in tooled ashlar with stone dressings and stands on a chamfered plinth. The steeply pitched roof is covered in fishscale tiles with lapped stone copings to the gables and a chamfered eaves band.

The composition comprises a three-stage west tower, nave, lower chancel, and north organ bay. The tower features stepped angle buttresses rising to the top of the second stage at its western corners, chamfered bands marking the stages, and a polygonal staircase turret in the south-eastern corner (adjacent to the nave) crowned with a lapped stone roof. The west elevation of the tower displays a keel-moulded pointed doorway with attached shafts and double-studded wooden doors. Above this sits a two-light pointed window with cusped Y-tracery. The north and south elevations of the tower are blank. Higher up are two-light pointed louvred bell openings with cusped Y-tracery on the north, south, and west sides; the western opening has a clock face at its base. The tower is topped with an embattled parapet and a recessed thin spire bearing gableted lucarnes on all four sides.

The north nave elevation has four pointed two-light windows with cusped Y-tracery, with almost full-height stepped buttresses at the corners and between the windows. A north vestry in 17th-century style projects to the east, featuring a two-light mullion window to the north and a chamfered pointed doorcase to the east with hoodmould. The east elevation of the chancel contains a pointed four-light window with geometric cusped tracery, flanked by stepped angle buttresses. The south elevation of the chancel has a single moulded lancet with cusped tracery to the top, while the south elevation of the nave mirrors the north elevation. All original openings throughout are fitted with hoodmoulds and block-like stops.

The interior is dominated by tall pointed continuous moulded arches at the chancel and tower openings; the tower arch is mostly blocked in. The chancel features a moulded four-centred arch opening into the northern organ bay and a small pointed arch from the organ bay into the nave, providing access to the pulpit. The chancel is roofed with a pointed barrel vault with painted decoration, while the nave has arched braced trusses.

The furnishings include a Decorated Gothic style oak rood screen with central doors, chancel panelling, oak altar rails, and simple oak choir stalls, all installed in 1946 as a gift from parishioners to mark the centenary of the church—a fact recorded on a plaque south of the rood screen. A late 19th-century organ features quatrefoil decorations. The nave retains its original plain box-like pews and a late 19th-century octagonal pulpit set on an octagonal stem with cusped panelled sides and small colonnettes at each corner.

At the west end of the nave, a screened-off 20th-century vestry occupies the south side, while a stone font stands on the north side. The font has an octagonal stem and bowl, each side decorated with cusped mouchettes. Pierced wooden rails stand to the south of the font, and five pointed-backed chairs stand to the north, both likely part of the original chancel fittings.

The chancel contains one white marble wall memorial of 1858 to Reverend Echalaz. The nave holds two wall memorials: one dating to circa 1918 in memory of Arthur Holmes and another of circa 1916 to Norman Holtby. A brass plaque at the west end records that the clock was given in memory of William Heath, who died in 1924. Inside the tower, a painted plaque records that the chapel was erected in 1845–1846 and that free sittings were provided by grant from the Incorporated Society.

The windows include brightly coloured glass in the top panels of the east window, probably dating to circa 1845, two early 20th-century stained-glass windows in the nave, and one of circa 1871 in the nave commemorating Lady Horton of Catton.