Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Marsh Chapel

Parish church of early 15th-century date, with the chancel rebuilt in 1848. Constructed in ashlar, squared ironstone and limestone rubble with lead roofs behind parapets.

The church comprises a western tower, nave with clerestory, aisles, chancel, south porch, and north chapel.

The tower is a tall three-stage structure in ashlar with a moulded plinth, coped offset to the middle stage, and an embattled parapet with eight crocketed pinnacles. It has stepped set-back buttresses and a stair tower at the south-east angle. Cinquefoil-headed louvred lights are set into the middle stage on all but the east side. The belfry stage has two-light openings on all sides with cinquefoils to the heads and quatrefoils above. The west door features a continuously moulded hollow-chamfered surround with deeply moulded hood and human-head label stops. Above the door is a worn head carved with flowing hair. The west window is of four lights with ogee heads to the lights, panel tracery, and moulded hood with human-head label stops.

The aisles and nave are constructed in squared coursed limestone and ironstone rubble with embattled parapets, corner pinnacles, and gargoyles. The north aisle east and west windows are of three lights with ogee heads, panel tracery, four-centred arched heads, and hood moulds. Three similar windows and a four-light window are set on the north side, with the bays divided by stepped buttresses. The north doorway has a deeply moulded four-centred surround surmounted by an ogee hood with crocketed pinnacle and human-head stops. A canopied niche with an inscribed scroll beneath is set in the centre. The chancel east window has five lights with four-centred head and panel tracery. Similar four-light windows are found on the south side of the chancel, whilst five three-light windows of the same style appear on the south aisle: one at each end and three on the south side. A shield bearing a coat of arms is positioned at the south-west end of the aisle. The clerestory on both sides has four paired lights with cusped heads to the lights and daggers above.

The gabled south porch has corner pinnacles and cross fleury, gargoyles, and corner buttresses. The porch has paired side lights matching the clerestory. The outer doorway features sunk wave moulding, whilst the inner doorway has two similar orders separated by a hollow moulding containing human heads, foliage, and a Latin scrolled inscription. An ogee hood with human-head stops surmounts the inner doorway, above which is a decorated niche with an angel corbel.

Internally, the 15th-century four-bay nave arcades feature hollow-chamfered octagonal piers on deeply moulded bases with brattished capitals and double-chamfered four-centred arches. The tall tower arch has two continuously moulded chamfered orders with an outer order dying to its reveals. The four-centred chancel arch has two continuously moulded chamfered orders. At the west end of the north aisle is a double-chamfered arch leading to the north chapel, whilst the north wall of the chancel contains a similar larger arch to the chapel and a small double-chamfered and moulded doorway. The south aisle roof retains 15th-century bosses within a 19th-century roof, and the 19th-century chancel roof features angel corbels.

A 15th-century oak chancel screen with a central doorway flanked by two pairs of cusped ogee-headed lights with pointed outer arches, panel tracery, and clustered shafts is present; the top is 19th-century brattished. All pews and the pulpit are of 19th-century date. A 15th-century plain octagonal font with a 19th-century suspended cover is retained.

The church contains a monument on the south wall of the chancel: a small alabaster wall plaque to Walter Harpham and his wife, dated 1607. It features two opposed kneeling figures under arcades beneath a pedimented surround with memento mori and cherubs' heads, an escutcheon, and an hour glass above. A panel with scrolled rectangular surround bearing the memorial inscription is set beneath.