Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church dating from the 12th century through to the 19th century, with major phases of construction and renovation spanning the medieval period and beyond. The church is built in ashlar and coursed squared limestone rubble with some red brick, covered with lead roofs.

The church comprises a western tower, clerestoried nave with aisles, chancel, and north and south porches.

The tower dates to 1490–1547 and is constructed in ashlar with a moulded plinth and four chamfered string courses. It features an embattled parapet and stepped corner buttresses. The belfry stage has three-light windows with panel tracery in pointed hollow chamfered surrounds. The fourth stage has smaller two-light windows of similar design on the south and west sides only. The third stage features a single niche to the south and a pair to the west, with panelled details, shields, quatrefoils and canopied tops. The west doorway is continuously moulded with deep hollow chamfers and hood. The two-leaf door has panel tracery to the upper parts and a four-centred wicket. Above is a five-light tall window with panel tracery.

The north aisle dates to the 14th century and has gabled corner buttresses. To the west is a three-light window with trefoil heads. The north side has three pointed reticulated windows, one similar but with rectangular frame, and a three-light panel-traceried window with musician stops, including a bagpipe. To the east is a three-light reticulated window. An elaborate clerestory of six two-light windows features alternating flowing tracery with mouchettes and panel-traceried lights. Between the windows are niches matching those on the tower and terminating in gablettes, with a plain parapet having a cornice carved in a variety of heads and figures.

The north porch is an 18th-century gabled structure in brick and plain tiles, retaining a 14th-century moulded outer arch with annular imposts and a continuously moulded 14th-century inner doorway.

The 14th-century chancel has an openwork wave-moulded parapet, two tall three-light and two shorter three-light windows in original openings with restored tracery, and a small doorway with hood mould. A four-light 19th-century east window is present. The south side mirrors the north without the door. The clerestory matches the north side.

The south aisle features three late 13th-century Y-tracery three-light windows, two reticulated windows, a single panel-traceried window, and a three-light 16th-century window with triangular head. The gabled brick south porch is 18th-century with a plain tiled roof, double chamfered outer arch, and in the gable a slate sundial with segmental pediment dated to the 18th century. The sides contain small triangular lights occupying ogee window heads.

Interior

The interior contains six-bay 14th-century nave arcades with filleted quatrefoil pillars and annular capitals, double chamfered arches with hoods and human head stops. The 12th-century half-round east and west responds have scalloped capitals and square abaci. A tall late 15th-century tower arch features hollow chamfered octagonal imposts. The 14th-century chancel arch has circular imposts with fleurons and a wave-moulded head. A door to the rood loft is present on the south side.

In the south aisle are two cusped ogee niches to the east with pinnacles. The north aisle contains an aumbry and stairs to the rood loft. A 14th-century crown post roof is present. The chancel features a 14th-century triple sedilia with piscina beyond, with cusped heads and crocketed gablettes. A 19th-century tiled floor and reredos with ashlar pillars and frieze are present.

Fittings include an early 18th-century panelled octagonal pulpit with Ionic pilasters and pulvinated cornice, and an octagonal tester with entasia star. A 15th-century octagonal alms box on an ashlar base made from a hollowed-out tree trunk is retained. An 18th-century font has a swept octagonal bowl and base on two steps.

A 16th-century alabaster effigy of a knight in plate armour lies in a 14th-century tomb recess with continuously moulded surround, though the hood has been hacked off.

The chancel was restored by Temple Moore in 1873–1875.