Church Of St Mary

Church of St. Mary

Parish church of the 11th to 15th centuries, restored in 1860–1 by Kirk and Parry.

The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble and ashlar with slate and leaded roofs featuring raised stone coped gables. It comprises a west tower and spire, clerestoried nave, north and south aisles, and a south porch.

The west tower is a three-stage 15th-century structure with a chamfered plinth and string courses, stepped diagonal buttresses, a fleuron frieze and embattled parapet with gargoyles. The set-back spire displays two tiers of gabled lucarnes in alternating directions. The belfry stage contains tall two-light louvered openings with cusped heads, quatrefoils and plain pointed surrounds. The west door is pointed with trefoils in the sunk spandrels, set within a hollow chamfered, slightly four-centred arched surround. Above it is a two-light window matching the belfry stage openings.

To the north aisle's west well is a two-light 14th-century reticulated window in a wave-moulded surround. The north side has two matching windows—one of two lights and one of three—beneath a moulded and cambered head. A 14th-century priest's door with a continuously moulded and pointed surround also stands here. The 15th-century clerestorey on the north side features three broad three-light windows with hollow chamfered four-centred arched surrounds, alternating with elaborately cusped and pinnacled niches bearing grotesque heads above. The nave roof has an embattled parapet. The east wall of the aisle contains a further three-light reticulated window matching the rest.

The 13th-century chancel has a plain parapet and a single lancet in the north wall. The 14th-century east window of four lights displays fine flowing tracery forming mouchettes, daggers and quatrefoils. The chancel's south wall holds two lancets and a recut 14th-century two-light reticulated window. The south-east angle of the nave features quoins of long and short type, with a further 13th-century lancet immediately to the west.

The 13th-century south aisle has a lancet to the east. Its south wall contains a broad three-light 15th-century window with cusped heads to the lights and crude perpendicular tracery in a hollow chamfered triangular surround, with a small rectangular window in a plain chamfered surround to the west. The west wall holds a 19th-century lancet. The southern clerestorey has three pairs of trefoil-headed windows in hollow chamfered triangular surrounds.

The 15th-century gabled south porch has a continuously moulded outer four-centred arched doorway with moulded hood and above it a blank trefoil-headed niche. The inner doorway is 13th-century (recut) with a pointed head and plain chamfered surround. The principal timbers of the porch roof are moulded and appear original.

Interior

The north nave arcade consists of two bays from the late 12th century, with slender round pillars and cross-shaped capitals supporting double chamfered round arches. The south arcade has one large 13th-century pointed and chamfered arch to the west with annular shafted reveals, and a second smaller matching arch to the east, above which is a blocked pointed window. The tall 15th-century tower arch has chamfered octagonal reveals, moulded imposts and a four-centred arched head. The chancel arch largely dates from the 1860–1 restoration in its present form, with octagonal shafted reveals, moulded imposts, and a double chamfered arch with dogtooth hood mould.

Each aisle contains a plain aumbry and piscina. The north wall of the chancel features a broad 13th-century arch, double chamfered with dogtooth hood mould, supported on 12th-century triple shafted reveals with quirks and cushion capitals. The south wall holds a plain aumbry and piscina.

Fittings are all 19th-century, including the panelled ashlar pulpit, apart from the 15th-century octagonal font, which has sunk quatrefoils to the sides and stem. A reset door at the rear of the nave appears to be part of a 14th-century oak screen with cusped ogee-arched panels, brattished midrail and traces of red and gold paint.