Church Of St. Mary And All Saints

Church of St. Mary and All Saints

A parish church of exceptional architectural interest, with elements spanning from the 12th century through to the 19th century. The building comprises a west tower, nave with blocked north arcade and south aisle with south porch, and chancel. Construction is in coursed limestone rubble and limestone ashlar, with some ironstone rubble. The roofs are of lead and plain tile with stone coped gables topped with cross finials and some decorative ridge tiles. A major restoration took place in 1893.

The early 15th-century west tower is unbuttressed, with a plinth and moulded string course. It features a pointed west window with chamfered surround containing two pointed, cusped lights with early incipient panel tracery; the hood mould runs into the string course on each side, with a narrow trefoil-headed light above. The east side preserves the outline of the original nave gable. All four sides of the tower contain bell openings, each with a pointed head, chamfered surround, two pointed cusped lights with a cusped opening above and hood mould. Moulded eaves above are interrupted by single central gargoyles on each side, with battlements and ornate corner pinnacles.

The north side of the nave was rebuilt in the 19th century with two-stage buttresses alternating with three windows with flattened triangular heads, each containing two cusped, pointed lights, a cusped oculus, hood mould and label stops. A doorway beneath the central window has a flattened triangular head and continuous chamfered surround with panelled door. A fragment of 12th-century interlace carving is used as a quoin on the north-west corner. An early 15th-century clerestory above contains three windows with flattened triangular heads, each with two cusped, pointed lights and a cusped opening above.

The north side of the chancel has a moulded string course and a 19th-century pointed window with two pointed cusped lights, cusped oculus, hood mould and label stops. The east end is flanked by two-stage diagonal buttresses. A moulded string course runs beneath a 19th-century pointed window with three pointed cusped lights and three cusped oculi, hood mould and label stops. A section of Anglo-Saxon interlace carving is embedded to the left of this window. The south side of the chancel has a moulded string course and a pointed 19th-century window with two trefoil-headed lights, quatrefoil, hood mould and label stops.

The east end of the south aisle retains a fragmentary plinth and a late 15th-century window with flattened triangular head, continuous moulded surround and two pointed cusped lights. The south side of the aisle has a moulded plinth and an early 14th-century window to the east with three plate-tracery, ogee-headed narrow lights. Numerous fragments of 12th-century sculpture, mostly of stylised flower heads, are embedded in the south wall of the aisle and chancel.

The south porch is 15th-century with a gabled roof. It has a triangular-headed south doorway with continuous chamfered surround. The porch interior preserves an early 13th-century south doorway with pointed head, continuous chamfered surround and plank door, with a niche above having a cusped, ogee-shaped head. A 15th-century window to the west of the porch contains two pointed lights. A 15th-century clerestory above has three windows with flattened triangular heads, each with two cusped, round-headed lights and a cusped opening above.

The interior is entered beneath a late 12th-century tower arch with double-chamfered, pointed head dying into rectangular jambs. The north arcade is blocked, but a three-bay early 13th-century arcade is exposed with pointed double-chamfered heads, semi-circular responds, quatrefoil piers with moulded capitals and fillets on the western-most pier. A mid-13th-century south arcade of three bays has pointed, double-chamfered heads with hood moulds and a head in the spandrel to the west. The responds are triple-rolled with continuous hollows, a central fillet and moulded capitals. The eastern quatrefoil pier has a moulded capital and fillets. The western pier was remodelled in the mid-14th century with a quatrefoil plan with small slender rolls inserted in the cusps and rich foliate capitals in a continuous band. A rectangular opening high in the arcade wall to the east originally gave access to a rood loft, no longer extant.

The 19th-century chancel arch has a pointed, double-chamfered head, with the inner order supported on corbels, hood mould and label stops. The south wall of the chancel contains two 19th-century trefoil-headed sedilia with continuous moulded surround. A pointed 19th-century piscina in the north wall has a continuous chamfered surround.

Choir stalls and a reading desk incorporate large finialled 16th-century bench ends. A 17th-century polygonal pulpit features field panelling and an upper looped frieze. The chancel contains 19th-century pews, an altar rail and a brass lectern. A fragment of sculpted stone of around 1300 with leaf trails and a human head survives.

An early 13th-century font, heavily restored in the 19th century, has a round plinth and pedestal with a plain octagonal bowl. The tower interior contains a faded hatchment, a small Lord's Prayer board, and various 18th and 19th-century plaques commemorating charitable bequests. The tie beams of the nave roof are inscribed with the date 1817.