Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church with a 14th-century steeple, the nave and chancel dating to 1819. It is constructed of ashlar with stone dressings, featuring a plain plinth and a graduated slate roof with ridgeback copings, including a ridge cross to the eastern gable of the nave, plus a coved cornice. The church includes a small western steeple, a nave, a south porch, and a lower chancel bay.

The two-stage steeple has a massive clasping buttress at its base with central steps leading up to a 14th-century ogee-headed door and hoodmould with a foliage finial. The hoodmould forms the corbelled base of a trefoil-headed moulded niche above. The bell stage is narrower and includes chamfered bands. Lancets are present on the north and south sides, a simple lancet on the west side, and a similar blocked opening on the east side. A broached stone spire sits above, featuring small lucarnes on all four sides.

The north elevation has three chamfered pointed Y-tracery windows with transoms and leaded lights to the nave, and a raised pointed doorcase with a panelled door to the chancel. The east chancel elevation has a similar transomed Y-tracery central window flanked by lower chamfered lancets. The south elevation mirrors the north, with a central window extending above the transom level.

The south porch includes a raised pointed outer arch, simple chamfered single light windows to either side, ridgeback copings to flush parapets, and a similar pointed inner door with double panelled doors.

The interior features three stepped chamfered pointed arches into the chancel bay, and similar low arches between the centre and side parts of the chancel bay. The nave has a flat ceiling with a reeded cornice, and a pointed raised doorcase into the tower. Simple fittings include an early 20th-century oak altar rail, a late 19th-century octagonal wooden pulpit, late 19th-century bench pews, and an octagonal stone font with a moulded base. A late 19th-century organ is located at the west end of the nave, and a vestry is situated to the south side, divided off by a late 19th-century timber screen with a trefoil-headed arcade. The south side of the nave holds two re-set white marble oval wall memorials to the Broune family, dating to around 1760, and the north side features a grey marble memorial to Albert Burton, who died in 1917.

A painted plaque above the tower door reads: ‘Upwards of two hundred free and unappropriated sittings have been obtained in this church by the aid of the Society for the Enlargment and Building of Churches and Chapels and by other voluntary Subscriptions 24 October 1819’. All nave windows contain clear glass, while the chancel windows have coloured glass.