Church Of St Mary Magdalene

This parish church dates from the 13th to 17th centuries and was restored in 1891. It is built of ashlar with lead roofs, coped gables with parapets (embattled on the nave with crocketed finials), a decorative ridge cross on the east chancel, and a bellcote on the nave. The building is buttressed throughout and has a moulded plinth with a continuous sill band to all parts except the tower, though this band is broken in places by buttresses and the vestry.

The church comprises a tower, nave, aisles, south porch, chancel, and north vestry.

Tower

The tower is of five stages with bands and is set on a moulded plinth with a band over. It has a 15th-century parapet with corbel table and the remains of two gargoyles on each side, plus a lower frieze of cusped lozenges. The base of an uncompleted ashlar spire is topped with a small herringbone lead spire. The tower has clasping buttresses, with the south-west buttress serving as a stair turret that terminates below the bell chamber. These buttresses have single quatrefoils to each face except on the north side of the north-east buttress.

The bell chamber has slender angle buttresses with intermediate crocketed gables and human head label stops, terminating at the parapet in similar gables. The west buttresses have further slender stepped buttresses to each face which terminate below the fourth stage. These have nook shafts with shaft rings formed by the bands, terminating below the bell chamber.

At the second stage, the west and south sides have single late 13th-century pointed arched lancets with dogtooth hood moulds and human head label stops. There is five-bay late 13th-century blind arcading on the west, south, and north sides, with arches supported on colonnettes, some capitals decorated with stiff leaf. These have a continuous impost band and continuous hood mould. Above, on all sides, are single pairs of late 13th-century Y-traceried blocked openings. The colonnettes have shaft rings alternating with jambs of dogtooth, moulded capitals (those dividing the lights decorated with stiff leaf), and moulded arches. The east side is partially enclosed by the nave roof. Above this, on the north and south sides, are single clock faces.

Each side of the 15th-century bell chamber has a single pair of two-light arched openings, each with a single transom and a single pair of arched and cusped lights above and below the transom, cusped panel tracery, and ogee hood moulds.

North Aisle

The west wall of the north aisle has a single 17th-century arched three-light window with tracery and hood mould. The north wall has a single 14th-century arched three-light window with cusped flowing tracery and hood mould. To the left is a moulded pointed arched doorway with plank door, with the sill band forming a hood mould. Further left are two similar 14th-century windows with hood moulds, and on the far left two early 14th-century arched three-light windows with cusped intersecting tracery, hood moulds, and label stops. The east wall has a single 14th-century arched five-light window with cusped flowing tracery and hood mould.

Clerestory and Nave

The 15th-century clerestory has twelve four-centred arched three-light windows with cusped panel tracery. Between each window is a single pilaster strip decorated with blind cusping and terminating in a finial. There are two corner gargoyles. The east wall of the nave has a single pair of arched and cusped lights under a flat arch with hood mould.

North Chancel and Vestry

The north chancel has three early 14th-century arched three-light windows with cusped intersecting tracery, hood moulds, and label stops. The central window is foreshortened by the red brick and render vestry with slate roof. The vestry's west and east walls have single pointed arched lights, and the north wall has three arched and cusped lights under a flat arch with Tudor-style hood mould.

East Chancel

The east chancel has a single large 14th-century arched five-light window with reticulated tracery, hood mould, and label stops.

South Chancel

The south chancel has three restored early 14th-century arched three-light windows with cusped intersecting tracery, hood mould, and label stops. Under the central window is a moulded arched doorway with hood mould and label stops. To the far left is a single two-light 15th-century window with cusped tracery under a flat arch and with moulded hood.

South Aisle

The east wall of the south aisle has a single 14th-century arched five-light window with cusped flowing tracery, the mullions and jambs with moulded imposts, hood mould, and label stops. The south wall has two restored early 14th-century arched three-light windows with cusped intersecting tracery, hood mould, and label stops. To the left are two 14th-century arched three-light windows with cusped flowing tracery, hood moulds, and label stops.

South Porch

Further left is the two-storey 14th-century diagonally buttressed porch with moulded arched entrance and two orders of engaged colonnettes with moulded capitals, hood mould, and label stops. On either side are single arched and cusped niches with ogee hood moulds and finials. Above is a single 14th-century pointed segmental arched two-light window with cusped tracery, hood mould, and label stops. Above this is a single arched and cusped niche. The east wall of the top storey has a single 14th-century window under a flat arch with three arched and cusped lights; the west wall has a single similar two-light window. To the left in the re-entrant angle is a stair turret with two narrow rectangular lights and a single quatrefoil.

The interior of the porch has stone benches. The west wall has a 14th-century ogee arched doorway, hood mould, and 17th-century plank door. There is a moulded arched south doorway with 14th-century double-chamfered jambs, 19th-century moulded arch, and 19th-century hood mould. The 14th-century wooden door has deep chamfered buttresses decorated with pellets and a raised inscription. The wicket door is decorated with four coats of arms and a small niche.

To the left of the porch and in the west wall of the south aisle is a single arched three-light 14th-century window with cusped flowing tracery, hood mould, and label stops. The south clerestory corresponds to the north.

Interior

The interior has six-bay 14th-century nave arcades with octagonal columns and responds, moulded capitals, and deep moulded plinths. The arches are double-chamfered with hood moulds and human head label stops on both nave and aisle sides. There is a tall triple-chamfered 13th-century tower arch supported on triple circular responds with dogtooth capitals and hood mould. The line of the first nave roof is visible above, with the apex showing a single blocked arched opening. Above this is a further 14th-century former roof line.

The 19th-century double-chamfered chancel arch has an inner order supported on moulded corbels, with a 19th-century traceried screen and a single 19th-century roundel above with re-used tracery. The chancel has a moulded arched vestry doorway with hood mould and a squint through to the vestry. There is a stepped sill band broken in places, along with a 19th-century reredos, piscina, and tripartite sedilia. The aisle windows have continuous sill bands.

The clerestory windows are flanked by single engaged octagonal colonnettes supported on carved heads and supporting the 15th-century roof of tie beams on arched braces alternating with arched braces supporting principals. There is a single hammer beam construction, decorated with bosses.

Furnishings and Fittings

The early 18th-century panelled and pilastered pulpit is further decorated with carved cherub heads. There is a heavily restored octagonal font with a base dated 1664. Some 16th-century seating remains in the choir, along with some 15th-century poppyheads. The remains of a 13th-century pedestal piscina have capitals decorated with stiff leaf, and there is a further small pedestal piscina. A chest is dated 1720. The remains of 15th-century altar rails have open cusped tracery further decorated with foliate. There is a 17th-century altar table and an 18th-century table.

Substantial remains of 14th-century glass survive in the east window of the north aisle, with some further glass in north and south aisle windows.

Memorials

The church contains the remains of a 14th-century ashlar coffin and an early 15th-century brass of a lady with a dog at her feet. A 15th-century ashlar tomb chest has sides decorated with quatrefoil panels and shields; on top is a truncated 13th-century torso lying on a chamfered slab, with the surround decorated with wispy stiff leaf.

A fine coloured gilt and alabaster memorial to Adlard Welby and his wife Cassandra, erected 1605, comprises two kneeling figures in contemporary dress set into arches with keystones supported on panelled reveal and pilasters. The arches are flanked by single Corinthian columns which support a cornice with decorated soffit. There is a decorative cartouche and two shields above, flanked by single outer obelisks. The columns are supported on decorative brackets with inscription running between, and there is a decorated apron.

Two memorials on the east wall of the south aisle have decorative surrounds. The one on the right to Adlard Welbye, 1728, has a coloured shield on the apron. A further memorial to Edward Whitley, 1761, has a decorative surround to the inscription plaque with coloured cartouche on the apron. An early 19th-century memorial to Mary Anne Millington is by Kent of Boston. There are also some 18th- and 19th-century floor slabs.